Worldwide coronavirus cases crossed 26.13 million on Friday, with the death toll at 863,557 according to a Reuters tally.
Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.
In the Czech Republic, there have been more new cases on five days since August 26 than on any day during the first wave of the pandemic.
The United States will not pay some US$80 million it owes the World Health Organization (WHO), a Trump administration official said.
Thailand reported its first domestic coronavirus transmission in more than 100 days on Thursday, and Myanmar is facing a potential "disaster for the country".
Britain said it was investing in trials of a 20-minute COVID-19 test.
Here's the latest from around the world.
France
France registered more than 7000 new coronavirus infections over 24 hours for the second time in two days, the health ministry said on Thursday.
The health ministry reported that the cumulative total of confirmed cases rose to 300,181, up by 7157, just shy of a 7578 record set on March 31 during lockdown.
The death toll increased by 20 to 30,706, the fourth consecutive day of a double-digit death toll.
Wales
Wales said it had added mainland Portugal, Gibraltar, French Polynesia and the Greek islands of Mykonos, Zakynthos, Lesbos, Paros, Antiparos and Crete to the destinations that require travellers to quarantine on return from on Friday.
The country imposed a quarantine on travellers returning from the Greek island of Zante earlier this week.
The Czech Republic
The Czech Republic reported 650 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, its highest number for a single day since the start of the coronavirus pandemic as infections gathered speed amid relaxed government restrictions.
The latest cases, recorded by the Health Ministry over the previous 24 hours, took the overall number of cases reported since March to 25,773 in the country of 10.7 million.
The Czech Republic has registered 425 deaths associated with COVID-19, a lower toll than many of its fellow European Union member states.
On five days since August 26, there have been more new cases than on any day during the first wave of the pandemic. Daily increases per population size were mostly in multiples of those in neighbouring Germany in the past days.
The government has put emphasis on the low number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals - 172 as of Wednesday evening, including 40 serious cases - as a sign that the health system was not being overwhelmed.
Norway
Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg told children on Thursday she was confident a vaccine against the novel coronavirus will be found and that the disease could become one of many kids are vaccinated against.
She spoke at her third news conference held specially for children, with adults not allowed to ask questions, since the crisis began. At the first such briefing on March 16, Solberg told children it was "OK" to feel scared about the pandemic.
"I think we'll be able to find a vaccine and that means that corona will continue to exist but because we will be vaccinated we will not become ill or not so ill from it," Solberg said.
Other questions asked by children included: "Do we have enough soap?", "Does Norway have any money left after the pandemic?" and "Could we have Antibac that smells nice?"
Germany
German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz is working on a budget for next year that would see Berlin take on net new debt of at least 80 billion euros to fund more measures in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
The move underlines Scholz's determination to move Germany further away from its former image as Europe's austerity champion and cement Berlin's new role as the biggest spender in the euro zone's struggle to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The exact debt figure for 2021 is still subject to negotiations within Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative-led coalition government, but Scholz is trying to avoid net new debt exceeding 100 billion euros in 2021, the source told Reuters.
The step will require another suspension of Germany's constitutionally enshrined debt limits after Berlin already abandoned them this year, though Scholz is determined to stick to the fiscal rules from 2022 onwards, the source added.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom recorded 1735 daily confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to government data published on Thursday, up from 1508 a day earlier and the highest since June 4.
The daily number of deaths within 28 days of testing positive for the virus was 13, the government said.
England said earlier on Thursday it was making no changes to its list of destinations subject to quarantine.
Britain said it was investing in trials of a 20-minute COVID-19 test, with a view to rolling out widespread, systematic testing to detect outbreaks early, amid criticism over backlogs in its current testing system.
Health minister Matt Hancock has said he hopes mass testing using faster COVID-19 tests can be rolled out towards the end of the year, adding that they are key to restoring freedoms after months of COVID-19 restrictions.
"I want to solve the problem by having the next generation tests at a radically bigger scale. You can't do that on the current technology very easily," he told BBC television.
Britain is looking to develop tests which do not need to be read in a lab, giving results in a matter of minutes, rather than the current next-day target.
United States
US drugmaker Pfizer should know in October if a COVID-19 vaccine it is developing works, Chief Executive Albert Bourla said on Thursday, potentially placing it at the centre of bitter US presidential politics ahead of the November 3 election.
Pfizer would submit the candidate for approval immediately if data shows the vaccine, developed with partner, Germany's BioNTech, proves safe and effective, Bourla said at an online briefing sponsored by drug industry group IFPMA.
The race for vaccines with Moderna, AstraZeneca Plc , Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi and Chinese and Russian competitors comes as President Donald Trump seeks re-election, after committing billions of federal dollars to develop a vaccine to prevent COVID-19, which has killed more than 180,000 Americans.
The United States will not pay some $80 million it owes the World Health Organization (WHO) and will instead redirect the money to help pay its United Nations bill in New York, a Trump administration official said.
The United States plans to leave the Geneva-based WHO on July 6, 2021 after President Donald Trump accused it of becoming a puppet for China during the coronavirus pandemic. The WHO has rejected Trump's assertion.
Under a 1948 joint resolution of the U.S. Congress, Trump had to give one-year notice of the U.S. withdrawal from the WHO and is required to pay what Washington owes for the organization's current fiscal year.
The United States currently owes the WHO some $18 million for financial year 2019 and $62 million for financial year 2020.
Bolivia
Desperate families in Bolivia are turning to makeshift graves to bury their loved ones, with cemetery space at a premium as the coronavirus pandemic keeps the South American nation in its grip.
Local officials said families were creating clandestine graveyards or sneaking into the cemeteries of the capital, La Paz, in early morning or overnight hours to dig unofficial graves for their relatives.
"They want to bury on top of other graves. For example, they uncover the grave and want to put the body a metre (3 feet) deep, not even 2 or 3 metres," said Omar Arce, president of a local council, adding that police were forced to move the bodies later.
Bolivia, which has one of the highest regional rates of extreme poverty, has struggled to free itself from the weight of the pandemic as political tensions simmer ahead of a general election.
Government officials said in August that cases accelerated among the population of 11.6 million after protests linked to the postponement of the election until October 18 due to the spread of the virus.
Thailand
Thailand reported its first domestic coronavirus transmission in more than 100 days on Thursday, after a man recently jailed and with no overseas travel history tested positive in a Bangkok prison during a routine check for new inmates.
Authorities moved quickly to locate and isolate people in contact with the 37-year-old and trace his movements over the past two weeks, including three places where he had worked, the jail and the court at which he had appeared.
The new case will be a setback for Thailand, which has been credited with keeping the highly contagious virus under control, while maintaining months of immigration curbs that have devastated its tourism-reliant economy. It has removed most of its internal coronavirus restrictions.
South Korea
South Korea promised on Thursday to double its critical-care hospital beds amid a severe shortage, highlighting the strain of the pandemic on even well-equipped countries.
The spike in serious cases, with older people making up an increasing proportion of patients amid a broader resurgence, marks a sharp turn for a country that was seen as successful in crushing one of the worst early outbreaks of the new coronavirus outside China.
Fewer than 10 intensive-care beds were available in the greater Seoul area, a metropolis of 26 million people, as of Tuesday, health authorities said.
The crisis is growing more acute as more than 40 percent of the country's new coronavirus victims are 60 or older, up from 20% a month ago, health authorities said.
Myanmar
Myanmar has imposed mandatory quarantine and coronavirus tests for visitors to its capital city after reporting dozens more infections on Wednesday and leader Aung San Suu Kyi warned of a "disaster for the country".
Anyone entering the capital, Naypyitaw, where the government is based, will be quarantined, tested, and allowed in only if their result is negative, according to a government order published on Facebook.
People coming from Myanmar's worst-hit areas will be quarantined in a facility for at least seven days, according to the order by the Naypyitaw Council, while others will be allowed to leave earlier if they test negative.
Vaccine
Seventy-six wealthy nations are now committed to joining a global COVID-19 vaccine allocation plan co-led by the World Health Organization (WHO) that aims to help buy and fairly distribute the shots, the project's co-lead said on Wednesday.
Seth Berkley, chief executive of the GAVI vaccines alliance, said the plan, known as COVAX, now has Japan, Germany, Norway and more than 70 other nations signed up, agreeing in principle to procure COVID-19 vaccines through the facility for their populations.
"We have, as of right now, 76 upper middle income and high income countries that have submitted confirmations of intent to participate - and we expect that number to go up," Berkley told Reuters in an interview.
"This is good news. It shows that the COVAX facility is open for business and is attracting the type of interest across the world we had hoped it would.".
COVAX is co-led by GAVI, the WHO and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). It is designed to discourage national governments from hoarding COVID-19 vaccines and to focus on first vaccinating the most high-risk people in every country.
Its backers say this strategy should lead to lower vaccine costs for everyone and a swifter end to the pandemic that has claimed some 860,000 lives globally.
Reuters
