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.

New cases of coronavirus infections in Germany have soared past 4,000, official data showed Thursday, reaching a daily level not seen since April 11 when the country was still in lockdown.

Europe's biggest economy recorded 4,058 new Covid-19 cases in 24 hours, including 16 deaths, according to latest data compiled by the disease control agency RKI.

India has registered 78,524 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, driving the country's total since the pandemic began to 6.8 million.

The Health Ministry on Thursday also reported 971 deaths in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 1,05,526.

Almost two million babies are stillborn every year -- one every 16 seconds -- the United Nations said Thursday, warning that the Covid-19 pandemic could add another 200,000 deaths to the "devastating" toll.