Israel on Sunday opened a new coronavirus treatment facility co-run by the army's medical corps, an unprecedented move for the military unit, aimed at bolstering an embattled healthcare system.

India's coronavirus cases surged past seven million on Sunday as U.S. President Donald Trump got back on the campaign trail just nine days after announcing he had contracted Covid-19.

Europe's second wave of coronavirus infections has struck well before flu season even started, with intensive care wards filling up again and bars shutting down. Making matters worse, authorities say, is a widespread case of "COVID-fatigue."

Record high daily infections in several eastern European countries and sharp rebounds in the hard-hit west have made clear that Europe never really crushed the COVID-19 curve as hoped, after springtime lockdowns.

More than 10 million cases of the new coronavirus have been recorded in Latin America and the Caribbean according to an AFP tally at 0640 GMT based on official sources.

Software giant Microsoft will let employees work from home permanently if they choose to, US media reported on Friday, becoming the latest employer to expand work-from-home provisions prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

His hands caked with paint and dust, Aakash looks right at home working at an auto repair shop -- except that he is a minor, one of millions forced into the Indian labor market.

Spain's cabinet was to meet on Friday to discuss imposing a state of emergency in Madrid after judges overturned a partial lockdown that was opposed by the regional authorities.

Russia on Friday registered a record number of new coronavirus cases, according to a government tally, surpassing the previous record set at the beginning of the pandemic in May. 

Officials reported 12,126 new infections bringing the country's total caseload to 1,272,238 -- the fourth hightest in the world, and edging above the previous daily high of 11,656 on May 11.

Over the course of a single overnight shift this week, three new COVID-19 patients were rushed into Dr. Karim Debbat's small intensive care ward in the southern French city of Arles. His service now has more virus patients than during the pandemic's first wave, and is scrambling to create new ICU beds elsewhere in the hospital to accommodate the sick.

Similar scenes are playing out across France. COVID-19 patients now occupy 40% of ICU beds in the Paris region, and nearly a quarter in ICUs nationwide, as several weeks of growing infections among young people spread to vulnerable populations.

France was preparing Thursday for tighter coronavirus restrictions in several major cities, two days after a maximum alert protocol went into force in Paris.