Coronavirus: What's happening in Canada and around the world Wednesday
CBC
The latest:
Russia has hit another record for daily COVID-19 deaths as authorities across the country moved to keep most people off work in line with a Kremlin order aimed at stemming the spread.
Russia's coronavirus task force on Wednesday registered 1,123 deaths in 24 hours, the largest daily toll since the pandemic's start.
Moving to curb contagion, Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a non-working period from Oct. 30 to Nov. 7 when most state organizations and private businesses are to suspend operations.
Russian authorities expect the off-work time will help limit the spread of contagion by keeping people out of offices and public transportation, but many Russians sought to use the period for a seaside vacation ahead of the long winter season.
-From The Associated Press, last updated at 7:10 a.m. ET
As of early Wednesday morning, more than 244.6 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University's coronavirus tracking tool. The reported global death toll stood at more than 4.9 million.
In Europe, Ukraine's health minister urged more people to get their shots as deaths hit a daily record and hospitalizations were up more than a fifth on the previous week.
Poland reported 8,361 daily COVID-19 cases and 133 deaths on Wednesday, with the number of new infections reaching the highest level since late April.
Meanwhile, Bulgaria's tally of infections rose by 6,813 in the last 24 hours — a record daily increase as the European Union's least vaccinated country grapples with a fourth wave of the pandemic.
In the Americas, an expert panel voted overwhelmingly to recommend the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorize the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine for children ages five to 11, saying the benefits of inoculation outweigh the risks.
In the Asia-Pacific region, the health ministry in Vietnam has approved vaccinations for children age 12 to 17, with older teens in more populated cities getting the first doses. There are about 14 million Vietnamese children in that age range.
China has reported nearly 250 locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 since the start of the current outbreak 10 days ago, with many infections in remote towns along porous international borders in the country's northwest. The country had 50 new local cases for Oct. 26, the highest daily count since Sept. 16, official data showed on Wednesday.
In South Africa — the hardest-hit country in Africa — the Health Ministry on Tuesday reported 331 new cases of COVID-19 and 53 additional deaths. According to the Johns Hopkins tracker, nearly 20 per cent of the country's population is fully vaccinated.
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