ANKARA, Turkey The number of daily confirmed COVID-19 deaths in Turkey topped 50 the highest single-day fatality in the country since mid-May.
Health Ministry figures released Friday showed that 53 people had died in the past 24 hours, bringing the overall death toll in the country to 6,564.
There were 1,610 new confirmed cases of the virus within the last 24 hours, as the number of infected people also continued to hover around levels previously seen in May.
Authorities have imposed nationwide restrictions on weddings, engagement parties and other large social gatherings.
Turkey has recorded more than 276,000 infections since March.
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HERES WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE VIRUS OUTBREAK
WHO chief says U.N. agency wont recommend vaccines unless safe
India adds 83,000 coronavirus cases, nears 2nd most in world
Mexico downplays coronavirus cases among medical personnel
Italy ex-PM Silvio Berlusconi admitted to Milan hospital as precaution to monitor his coronavirus infection.
Madrid is restricting family reunions and social gatherings to curb a sharp spike in confirmed coronavirus cases as schools are set to reopen.
Chickens replace students in Kenyan school as struggling educators make what money they can after studies postponed.
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Follow APs pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
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HERES WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:
BERLIN Authorities in Germany have acknowledged two further mishaps involving coronavirus tests as the country reports a further 1,453 cases in the past 24 hours.
Health officials in Hamburg said Friday that 250 samples were lost; they were taken from people who were tested at the airport last week upon return from high-risk areas.
Authorities said all of those affected should still be in quarantine and would now be tested again.
Health officials in Bavaria said test results for about 10,000 people who were swabbed at airports in the southern German state were delayed due to technical problems.
Meanwhile, Berlins public health office say they registered dozens of potential super spreading events, where people infected with COVID-19 came into contact with several other people, including four schools, five doctors practices and a sex party.
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ALFRED, Maine — An outbreak of the coronavirus at a jail that is linked to another outbreak at a wedding poses enough of a risk that schools in Maines southernmost county should take more precautions, education officials said Friday.
York County is home to an outbreak of more than 80 cases at a jail in the community of Alfred, as well as other outbreaks. The jail cases overlap with a larger outbreak centered on a wedding reception in Millinocket, in the northern part of the state, that has sickened more than 140 people and killed three. State officials have said a jail employee attended the August reception.
Every Maine county but York is designated at lowest risk for the virus, which has elevated risk. The countys test-positivity rate of 1.8% is three times the state average.
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LONDON The head of the World Health Organization says the U.N. health agency wont recommend any coronavirus vaccine before it is proved safe and effective.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the comment Friday, even as Russia and China have started using their experimental vaccines before long-term studies have been completed. Other countries have proposed streamlining authorization procedures.
He says vaccines have been used successfully for decades and credited them with eradicating smallpox and bringing polio to near elimination. He pointed to newly developed Ebola vaccines that helped end the recent Ebola outbreak in Congo.
Tedros appealed to people opposed to vaccination to do their own research.
The anti-vaccine movement, they can build narratives to fight against vaccines. But the track record of vaccines tells its own story and people should not be confused, he says. They can have a look for themselves on how the world actually used vaccines to reduce under 5 mortality to save children.
He says hes hopeful thered soon be an effective coronavirus vaccine so the world can get back to normal.
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MADRID Spain is nearing a half a million coronavirus infections since the beginning of the pandemic after adding more than 10,000 new cases on Friday.
The new Health Ministry data showed a significant increase in the latest wave of contagion sweeping Spain, although authorities say the situation has no comparison with when the outbreak peaked.
Health authorities say Spain is testing more, most of the cases discovered dont require hospitalization and the treatment of patients has improved.
There were 184 deaths added on Friday for a total toll of 29,418.
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PHOENIX Arizona reported 728 confirmed coronavirus cases and 41 deaths on Friday. That increased the states totals to 204,681 cases and 5,171 confirmed deaths.
The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Arizona went from 784 on Aug. 20 to 545 on Thursday, while the rolling average for daily deaths went from 43 to 34.
Arizona was a national hot spot in June and July, but cases and deaths have been trending downward since then.
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ATHENS, Greece Greek authorities say coronavirus checks will be carried out on all care homes for the elderly throughout the country within the next 10 days.
Civil Protection Deputy Minister Nikos Hardalias made the announcement on Friday.
Care homes had remained untouched in the first wave of the pandemic in Greece, when a lockdown imposed early in the outbreak is credited with keeping the number of cases and deaths low.
But a recent increase in the spread of the virus after restrictions were relaxed and foreign tourists were welcomed into the country has resulted in outbreaks in at least two care homes, with several deaths reported.
Health authorities announced 202 new cases and one death, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 11,200 and 279 deaths in Greece.
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ROME Former Premier Silvio Berlusconi, who tested positive this week for the coronavirus, has been hospitalized in Milan.
Alberto Zangrillo, his personal doctor who is also on staff at San Raffaele hospital, says the 83-year-old has an early stage lung infection but is breathing on his own.
Zangrillo says test results makes us optimistic for his recovery over the next hours and days. He says after examining Berlusconi at home a day earlier, he decided on hospitalization after detecting bland pulmonary involvement.
Berlusconi, who has a pacemaker, is expected to be hospitalized for a few days, according to Zangrillo.
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BERLIN German pharmaceutical company CureVac says it is receiving another 252 million euros ($298 million) to develop a coronavirus vaccine.
The company says its request for additional funding has been approved by Germanys Ministry for Education and Research, provided certain milestones are reached.
Germanys state-owned KfW bank has already taken a 23% stake in CureVac for 300 million euros. The company launched an initial public offering of shares, but its main shareholder remains Dietmar Hopp, the co-founder of German software giant SAP.
CureVac is among a small number of companies that aim to develop a COVID-19 vaccine using mRNA technology that experts say could allow rapid inoculation on a larger scale than traditional forms of vaccination.
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JOHANNESBURG The World Health Organization director-general says so far our worst fears have not been realized after warnings that malaria deaths could double this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told malaria experts many countries have gone to great lengths to maintain services, even as 46% of more than 100 countries surveyed have reported disruptions to related services.
However, he says an increase in malaria cases and deaths is still expected this year. Malaria killed more than 400,000 people last year, with more than 90% of deaths in Africa.
The WHO chief called for more protection of health workers and strengthened health systems.
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COPENHAGEN, Denmark Danish Health Minister Magnus Heunicke says testing will be stepped up in Copenhagen after more than 170 cases have been reported nationwide for the second day in a row.
Existing test facilities will be upgraded and extra facilities set up in two neighborhoods in the Danish capital, Heunicke says.
Kaare Moelbak of Statens Serum Institut, a government agency that maps the spread of the coronavirus in Denmark, that the cases were spread throughout Copenhagen and occurred mainly at private gatherings.
Some 173 cases were reported on Friday. Denmark recorded 179 on Thursday — the highest number of new cases in a single day since April 22.
Overall, Denmark has 17,547 confirmed cases and 627 deaths.
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PRAGUE Health authorities are tightening restrictions in the Czech capital after a recent spike of coronavirus cases in Prague and other parts of the country.
Starting Wednesday, its mandatory to wear face masks in stores and shopping malls. Bars, restaurants and night clubs must be closed from midnight until 6 a.m.
Students in Prague must wear face coverings in all shared spaces of elementary and high schools, starting Sept. 14.
The Czech Republic on Thursday had a record daily increase of 680 cases, with 168 in the capital.
The country has 26,452 confirmed cases and 426 deaths.
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MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. A South Carolina beach town has renewed its mask mandate. Thats despite coronavirus cases trending downward after a spike linked to the popular tourist destination this summer.
Myrtle Beach has extended through Sept. 30 the July executive order mandating face coverings worn in public places, according to the citys website.
This is not the time to stop our efforts, City Manager John Pedersen said during a City Council meeting Thursday.
In June and July, some coronavirus clusters in other states, including West Virginia and New Jersey, were linked to vacationers and wedding attendees returning from trips to Myrtle Beach. Horry County, which contains Myrtle Beach, also had a spike in cases. Since then, data shows the county has seen a downward trend in case numbers.
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BATON ROUGE, La. The Louisiana Department of Corrections has suspended a work program that places inmates in the state Capitol building after two inmates tested positive for the coronavirus.
An agency spokesman says the Dixon Correctional Institute inmates began showing symptoms of coronavirus on Monday and tested positive for the virus Tuesday. Theyre in medical isolation.
State data shows that nearly 400 inmates at Dixon currently have the coronavirus.
The inmates are part of a crew of workers bused 30 miles from Jackson to Baton Rouge to clean, cook and perform landscaping in the Capitol and other state buildings.
The inmates in the programs make between 4 and 70 cents an hour or credit toward early release for their work. Some lawmakers have criticized the use of cheap inmate labor at state-owned buildings, The Advocate reported.
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MADRID The Madrid regional government is restricting family reunions and social gatherings to curb a sharp spike in coronavirus cases just as schools are set to reopen.
An existing ban on outdoor meetings of more than 10 people is extended indoors, after most new recent infections have been tied to gatherings at homes. Funerals, burials, weddings and religious celebrations, as well as group visits to museums or guided tourism will be restricted starting Monday.
Nearly one third of the countrys new infections are in and around the Spanish capital, a region of 6.6 million. At least 16% of beds in Madrids hospitals are occupied by COVID-19 patients, the highest rate of all Spanish regions.
Announcing the new restrictions Friday, the regional health chief says recent data show the rate of new daily increases is slowing down. Madrid is also expanding the number of contact tracers, which has been one of the weakest links in dealing with the the outbreaks. Its also purchasing 2 million kits for rapid coronavirus tests.
Spain, edging to half a million confirmed coronavirus cases since February, is leading Europes second wave of the pandemic with a rate of virus prevalence above 212 per 100,000 residents for the past two weeks. There’s been at least 29,234 confirmed deaths from the virus.
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BUDAPEST, Hungary Hungary has registered 459 new cases of the coronavirus, the highest daily figure since the start of the pandemic.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban told state radio that his government has three main objectives regarding the second wave of the pandemic: Protect those the most at-risk, like the elderly; create conditions needed for schools to function; and rev up the economy.
Orban says if the economy has to stop again, were all going to be in a very difficult situation.
Hungarys decision to close its borders to most foreigners from Sept. 1 has drawn criticism from the European Union, but Orban says despite the objections from Brussels, in a few days they will be doing what we are, because without new border rules they wont be able to stem the spread of the virus.
Hungary has registered 7,382 confirmed cases and 621 deaths.
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PARIS France has closed 22 of its 62,000 schools since in-person classes resumed this week because of coronavirus infections.
Of those, 10 were on the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion, where access to health care is poorer than on mainland France and the number of virus patients in hospitals has increased in recent weeks.
Education Minister Jean-Blanquer told Europe-1 radio that overall, French schools have reported about 250 suspected virus cases per day since they started reopening Tuesday.
Not all those cases turn out to be positive, but once a suspicion is reported, schools must follow an extensive government protocol that can include sending a whole class home for online learning or shutting the whole school.
The French government, like many around Europe, ordered the in-person reopening of all schools this week to tackle inequalities worsened by lockdowns and get parents back to work to revive the economy.
France recorded more than 7,000 new virus cases Thursday, the highest daily rate in Europe and up from several hundred a day in May and June, in part thanks to ramped-up testing. More than 30,700 people with the virus have died in France.
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PRAGUE The number of people infected with COVID-19 has continued to surge to record levels in the Czech Republic, surpassing 600 for the second straight day.
The Health Ministry says the day-to-day increase reached 680 new confirmed cases on Thursday, a new record.
Health authorities are expected to discuss a response to the spike later on Friday.
The Czech Republic has had a total of 26,452 infected with COVID-19, 426 have died. Currently, 177 people were hospitalized while 40 needed intensive care.
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