South Korea has recorded more than 500 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours while Germany's fatalities passed the grim milestone of 15,000 and authorities in India's capital considered implementing a night-time curfew.
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The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said on Thursday the 583 additional cases took the country's tally to 32,318 including 515 deaths.
South Korea's daily new confirmed cases exceeded 500 for the first time in about eight months, with the country experiencing a spike in new infections since it relaxed stringent physical distancing rules last month.
To deal with the latest resurgence, the country on Tuesday reimposed tough distancing guidelines in Seoul and some other areas.
Officials say the latest bout is more worrisome because many clusters are linked to schools, private tutoring academics, offices, hospitals and family gatherings.
German's disease control centre, the Robert Koch Institute, said on Thursday that another 389 deaths were recorded overnight, bringing the total since the start of the pandemic to 15,160.
Germany has registered 983,588 total cases of the coronavirus after adding 22,368 overnight, the agency said.
Germany embarked on a so-called "wave-breaker" shutdown on November 2, closing restaurants, bars, sports and leisure facilities but leaving schools, shops and hair salons open.
It was initially slated to last four weeks but Chancellor Angela Merkel and the country's 16 state governors agreed on Wednesday to extend it through December 20 with a goal of pushing the number of new cases in each region below 50 per 100,000 inhabitants per week.
It's currently at 140 per 100,000.
Merkel said that while existing measures have succeeded in halting an surge in new coronavirus infections, they have stabilised at a high level.
Officials in New Delhi are considering a night-time curfew amid the latest coronavirus surge that has battered the Indian capital's healthcare system and overwhelmed its hospitals.
The New Delhi government on Thursday told this to a court that had questioned the administration on the measures being taken to control the spike in daily cases.
The court was hearing a plea seeking to ramp up COVID-19 testing facilities in the city, which is recording the most number of cases from any state in India for the last three weeks and more than 100 fatalities on an average every day for two consecutive weeks.
India's new overall infections have declined steadily after peaking in mid-September but the situation in the capital remains a concern.
India has recorded 9.26 million cases of coronavirus, second behind the US.
US deaths from COVID-19 surpassed 2000 in a single day on Tuesday for the first time since May and hospitalisations across the country reached a record of more than 89,000 on Wednesday.
As the coronavirus leaves many people housebound, the World Health Organisation says people need to get more active, insisting that up to 5 million deaths worldwide could be avoided each year if people would run, walk and simply move more
The UN health agency, launching updated guidelines on sedentary behaviour, is pointing to figures that one in four adults - and four in five adolescents - don't get enough physical activity, a situation that's complicated by the COVID-19 crisis that has shut up many people indoors.
It recommends at least two and a half hours of "moderate to vigorous aerobic activity" for adults per week, and an hour per day for children and teens.
Globally, more than 60.37 million people have been reported to be infected by the coronavirus and 1,420,556 have died.
Australian Associated Press
