India's Covid-19 tally rises to 8.2 million

India recorded 45,231 new coronavirus infections, taking its total cases to 8.23 million, the health ministry said on Monday.

New daily cases in India have been falling since September, but experts warn that infections could rise again during the festival season.

The country has the world's second-highest caseload, behind the United States, which has more than 9 million.

There were 496 deaths in the last 24 hours from the coronavirus, taking total deaths to 122,642.

46.8 million infections

The novel coronavirus has killed at least 1,205,437 people out of 46,834,630 infections since the outbreak emerged in China late last year, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP on Monday.

The United States remains the most affected country, with 236,473 deaths from 9,474,845 cases.

The countries with the next-highest death tolls are Brazil with 160,104 and Mexico with 91,895.

Geneva closes bars, restaurants

The canton of Geneva says it will go beyond Switzerland's national measures and close all bars, restaurants and non-essential shops in a bid to rein in skyrocketing Covid-19 cases.

The region's 500,000 inhabitants will thus find themselves in roughly the same semi-lockdown situation as in the spring, with the exception that schools will remain open.

Iran travel restrictions

Iran announces it will restrict travel to its hardest-hit cities, after recording the country's highest daily death toll of 434.

The measures, which takes effect Monday and will last until Friday, apply to the capitals of 25 hard-hit provinces, including Tehran.

Limited restrictive measures were imposed in those cities just a day before, forcing the closure of some public spaces and businesses.

One of the United States' top government scientists, Anthony Fauci, issues an urgent plea for a change in coronavirus policy, drawing a sharp rebuke from the Trump administration in the final days of a hard-fought election campaign.

Fauci once briefed Trump on the virus almost daily but he told the Washington Post the president no longer seeks his advice, preferring Scott Atlas, whose expertise in epidemiology is heavily disputed by the scientific and public health community.

New Spain clashes

Spanish police arrest more than 30 people during clashes with protesters for a second consecutive night as demonstrators take to the streets to denounce new restrictions.

The biggest disturbances were in Madrid where scores of demonstrators chanting "freedom!" torched rubbish bins and set up makeshift barricades on the city's main thoroughfare, the Gran Via.

Israel begins clinical trials of a coronavirus vaccine, as the government loosens a second lockdown.

"We can see the light at the end of the tunnel," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says.