The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases exceeded 53.87 million globally, according to the latest tally from Worldometers.
The confirmed coronavirus cases reached 53,876,973with over 1,311,844fatalities as of Saturday, report agencies.
The US has recorded 10,724,830 cases with 244,302 deaths so far amid a nationwide surge of infections that shows no sign of slowing.
The United States reported an all-time high of nearly 200,000 new COVID-19 cases Thursday, setting a new record for the fifth time in a week, data updated Friday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show.
Brazil on Friday reported 456 deaths from COVID-19, raising the nationwide death toll to 164,737.
Meanwhile, the Latin American country registered 29,070 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the accumulated national caseload to 5,810,652.
Brazil has the world's second-highest COVID-19 death toll, following the United States, and the third most COVID-19 cases, after the United States and India.
According to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, India's caseload now stands at 8,728,795. The country's death toll has mounted to 128,668.
The world's largest vaccine maker, Serum Institute of India Ltd, is ramping up production of AstraZeneca Plc's Covid-19 vaccine candidate, aiming to have 100 million doses ready by December for an inoculation drive that could begin across India that same month.
Report from New Delhi, India's COVID-19 tally of cases climbed to 87.73 lakh with 44,684 new infections in a day, while 81,63,572 people have recuperated from the disease so far, bringing the national recovery rate to 93.04 per cent on Saturday, according to the Union Health Ministry data.
The fresh cases pushed the number of novel coronavirus cases to 87,73,479. The death toll climbed to 1,29,188 with the pandemic claiming 520 more lives in a span of 24 hours in the country, the data updated at 8 am showed.
The COVID-19 case fatality rate has further declined to 1.47 per cent.
There are 4,80,719 active COVID-19 cases in the country which comprises 5.48 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.
According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a cumulative total of 12,40,31,230 samples have been tested for COVID-19 up to November 13 with 9,29,491 samples being tested on Friday.
Meanwhile, Moderna is now very close to publishing the first results of the crucial late-stage clinical trial for mRNA-1273, the company's COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
The company revealed in a press release that it has completed the case accrual (i.e., finalized the collection of data) for the first interim analysis of mRNA-1273's phase 3 trial. Moderna's candidate is one of the few that has advanced to late-stage testing. It added that it is preparing the data for submission to the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) independent Data and Safety Monitoring Board for review and subsequent recommendation.
Moderna anticipates that it will be able to announce the results by the end of this month.
Last month, Moderna completed the 30,000-participant enrollment in the U.S. study, in which half of the participants received mRNA-1273 and half were administered a saline placebo.
The company is a participant in the federally sponsored Operation Warp Speed initiative, which aims to rapidly develop and distribute COVID-19 treatments and vaccines. The late-stage mRNA-1273 trial was designed in coordination with the NIH and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Report from Berlin adds: Germany expects to pay out 22 billion euros ($26 billion) in COVID-19 relief aid from January through June 2021 to companies and self-employed people, people close to the matter said, as the impact of the pandemic extends into next year.
Separately, Germany's November coronavirus aid package to compensate firms affected by lockdown measures will this month amount to 14 billion euros, they said. Initially, the government had expected to pay out 10 billion euros.
The German government's council of economic advisers expects the economy to shrink less than initially feared this year thanks to a strong summer, but a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic is clouding the growth outlook for 2021.
As part of the new round COVID-19 relief measure, companies can get up to 200,000 euros a month to cover fixed costs such as rent, while solo entrepreneurs can get up to 5,000 euros.
Germany has enough fiscal firepower to unleash more rescue and stimulus measures if needed to counter the impact of the pandemic on Europe's largest economy, Finance Minister Olaf Scholz had said on Thursday.
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