Global coronavirus infections surged by at least 623,260 on Friday, according to Worldometers tally, the second consecutive daily rise of more than 600,000 cases, report agencies.
The United States reported record new coronavirus cases for the third day in a row, as Joe Biden vowed to act against the pandemic on "day one" if he wins the presidential election in the world's worst-hit nation.
More than 49.80 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 1,250,910 have died, according to Worldometers tally. Infections have been reported in more than 213 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.
Europe has become the new pandemic epicenter in recent weeks, with more than 300,000 deaths -nearly a quarter of the global total.
More than 232,540 new infections were reported in the US on Friday, the third straight day of record cases, as votes from the bitterly fought presidential election were still being counted.
Daily new cases in France also hit over 60,000 for the first time.
No winner has been declared but Biden promised late Friday that he would not waste any time in addressing the pandemic if he is victorious.
"I want everyone, everyone to know on day one we're going to put our plan to control this virus into action," the Democrat said.
US cases are fast approaching 10 million, with more than 236,000 deaths, and the pandemic has hammered the world's biggest economy, leaving millions jobless.
Across the Atlantic, Greece became the latest European nation to enter lockdown Saturday with the continent reeling from a second, relentless coronavirus wave.
Under the measures, which came into force at 6 am (0400 GMT), Greeks can only leave their homes if they make an official request via mobile phone and then receive authorization.
The measures follow the imposition of restrictions in Italy, France, Ireland and Britain, while Switzerland is also being hit hard by the virus.
Poland will also impose fresh measures Saturday, closing most stores in
shopping centers, with some exceptions such as grocery stores, pharmacies and hair salons.
Governments are also exploring mass testing as a way to curb the pandemic.
In England, Liverpool on Friday began the country's first city-wide
coronavirus testing programme.
Meanwhile, Brazil registered 18,862 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, bringing the national count to 5,631,181, its health ministry said Friday.
Over the same period, 279 more deaths from the disease were reported, raising the national death toll to 162,015.
India, the second worst hit country in number of cases recorded 8,411,724 cases while 124,985 people have died so far from Covid-19 till Saturday morning.
Meanwhile, drugmakers and research centers around the world are working on COVID-19 vaccines, with large global trials of several of the candidates involving tens of thousands of participants well underway. Some companies had suggested early trial data could be ready for release in October, but have since pushed that back to November and December.
The following is what we know about the race to deliver vaccines to help end the coronavirus pandemic that has claimed over a million lives worldwide:
US drugmaker Pfizer Inc with German partner BioNTech SE, and US biotech Moderna Inc could have early data in November. Britain-based AstraZeneca Plc, in conjunction with University of Oxford, and Johnson & Johnson say they are on track to deliver data for their vaccines this year.
What happens in these trials? The companies are testing their vaccines against a placebo - typically saline solution - in healthy volunteers to see if the rate of COVID-19 infection among those who got the vaccine is significantly lower than in those who received the dummy shot.
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