France aims to lift a nationwide lockdown on December 15, President Emmanuel Macron said, with shops authorised to reopen as early as Saturday after weeks of closure. In a TV address Tuesday, Macron said some restrictions would remain in place to avoid a resurgence of the virus, and the threat of another lockdown.

British drugs group AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford on Monday said their jointly-developed vaccine against Covid-19 has shown "an average efficacy of 70 percent" in trials.

Russia reported Tuesday a record high 442 new coronavirus-related deaths as the country's regions struggled to cope with overflowing morgues and medicine shortages.

The US surpassed 11 million coronavirus cases Sunday, adding one million new cases in less than a week, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

A sudden coronavirus cluster emerged in the Australian city of Adelaide on Monday after seven months without a significant outbreak there, with the virus again escaping from the country's hotel quarantine system.

Mexico surpassed one million Covid-19 cases on Saturday, registering 5,860 new infections over the previous day in a country with one of the world's highest death tolls from the virus, the government said.