Coronavirus live news: doctor clears Trump to return to public events on Saturday; record global case rise | World news

Russia is expected to register a second potential Covid-19 vaccine on October 15th, Reuters is reporting.

The vaccine has been developed by the Vector Virology Institute and Biotechnology Center, a former Soviet bioweapons research laboratory.

Russia’s rapid vaccine-development campaign highlights President Vladimir Putin’s goal to establish the country as a primary player in the global race to secure Covid-19 vaccines.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that Russia’s Ministry of Health had declined to say what the approval would be for. But, said the paper, the country’s first vaccine, called Sputnik V, received conditional emergency approval in early August, after being tested on only 76 subjects, with the requirement that it would subsequently undergo large-scale trials.

Authorities in Moscow were considering closing bars and nightclubs to halt a second coronavirus wave as the number of new daily cases surged on Friday to the highest it has been since the pandemic began.

Russia reported 12,126 new infections, Reuters has said, pushing the overall total to 1,272,238. The previous record daily rise was 11,656 cases on May 11, when strict lockdown measures were in force across most of the vast country.

Russian authorities have recommended people stay at home this weekend, but currently have no lockdown in place and the Kremlin has said there are no plans to impose one for now.

The Moscow Mayor’s office was looking into closing bars, nightclubs and karaoke bars, but keeping restaurants in the capital open, the RBC media outlet reported on Friday, citing a a source at the mayor’s office.

“We have to at least somehow reduce the number of people in the city, otherwise we may arrive at the same strict restrictions as we had in the spring,” RBC quoted the source as saying.

Authorities in Moscow, the epicentre of Russia’s coronavirus outbreak in the spring, has also recommended people over the age of 65 isolate and has told businesses that at least a third of their staff must work remotely.

Officials said on Friday that 201 people had died of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus, in the last 24 hours, pushing the official death toll to 22,257.

Philippines confirms 2,996 new coronavirus cases, 83 more deaths

The Philippines’ health ministry on Friday reported 2,996 new coronavirus infections and 83 deaths, Reuters is reporting.

In a bulletin, the ministry said total confirmed cases in the Philippines have increased to 334,770, the highest toll in Southeast Asia, and fatalities to 6,152.

Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez is holding an emergency cabinet meeting this morning to consider declaring a state of emergency for Madrid and its surrounding region, to impose stronger anti-virus restrictions on the reluctant regional governors.

AP are reporting that the meeting comes a day after a Madrid court struck down a national government order that imposed a partial lockdown in the Spanish capital and its suburbs. The ruling sided with regional officials who had appealed the application of stricter measures against one of Europe’s most worrying virus clusters.

The judges said that travel restrictions in and out of the cities might be necessary to fight the spread of the coronavirus, but that under the current legal framework they were violating residents’ “fundamental rights”.

A state of emergency gives the national government extraordinary powers in time of crises to temporarily limit the constitutional rights of citizens. In this case, it would limit their freedom of movement by restarting perimeter controls on Madrid and some nearby towns also suffering from high contagion rates.

A much stricter nationwide state of emergency that began with home confinements was applied by the government from March until June to successfully rein in Spain’s first wave of the virus that causes Covid-19. Since it ended, the regions have regained control of health policy and their responses to controlling outbreaks has varied. Some have applied perimeter lockdowns around areas or towns with viral clusters.

The Madrid region has a 14-day infection rate of 591 coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents, more than twice Spain’s national average of 257 and five times the European average rate of 113 for the week ending 27 September.

The winner of this year’s Nobel peace prize will be announced on Friday at 11am (0900 GMT) in Oslo, with no shortage of causes or candidates on this year’s list.

While the Norwegian Nobel committee maintains absolute secrecy about whom it favours for arguably the world’s most prestigious prize, that has never stopped speculation ahead of the announcement.

Guesses – and bets – this year have focused on the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, the Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, recovering from a nerve agent attack he blames on Russian president Vladimir Putin, and the World Health Organization for its role in addressing the coronavirus pandemic.

Coronavirus cases in Bulgaria have hit new daily high record, Reuters is reporting.

The country has reported 516 new coronavirus cases of coronavirus – the third day in a row it has beaten its own record since the start of the pandemic in March, official data showed.

The Balkan country has 23,279 Covid-19 cases, including 880 deaths. A total of 1,063 people are hospitalised and 56 are in intensive care, data from the coronavirus information platform showed.

Despite the surge in infections in past days, the health minister said the country was still doing relatively well compared with other European Union countries hit by a second Covid-19 wave and ruled out imposing new restrictions for now.

As we reported earlier: Reuters is confirming that China has joined a global vaccine initiative for distributing 2bn doses of Covid-19 vaccines around the world by the end of next year.

The Covax vaccine facility supports equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines to rich and poor countries alike. The Gavi vaccine alliance has confirmed that China has become the 170th country to join, becoming the largest economy to join the group.

“This is fantastic news, which gives even more momentum to our efforts to ensure global, equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines,” said Seth Berkley, the chief executive of Gavi.

The move means China “will be procuring vaccines through the facility for a proportion of their own population, just as with other countries that have joined”, a spokesman said.

Earlier, China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, said: “This is an important step China has taken to uphold the concept of a shared community of health for all and to honour its commitment to turn #Covid19 vaccines into a global public good.”

Guardian Australia brings together all the latest on active and daily new Covid-19 cases, as well as maps, stats, live data and state by state graphs from NSW, Victoria, Queensland, SA, WA, Tasmania, ACT and NT to get a broad picture of the Australian outbreak and track the impact of government response

Good morning from London. It’s a hello from me, Amelia Hill. I’ll be taking over the reins from Helen.

That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, after a wild, wild week.

I’ll be back on Sunday AEST when, who knows, Trump may be holding a rally while still positive for coronavirus.