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| - Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis: France registers nearly 9,000 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours, the highest daily figure since the pandemic hit the country last March, the country's health agency says. The latest figures come as Paris and other french cities have started requiring face masks in all public areas, including for children over 11, who returned to school this week. The World Health Organization says it does not expect widespread immunisation against the novel coronavirus until mid-2021, tempering hopes just as research reveals encouraging early results from a Russian vaccine. And WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says the UN agency will not endorse a vaccine if it is not effective and safe. The pandemic has killed at least 869,718 people worldwide since surfacing in China late last year, according to an AFP count at 1100 GMT Friday based on official sources. The United States has recorded the highest number of deaths with 186,806, followed by Brazil with 124,614, India with 68,472, Mexico 66,329 and Britain 41,527 fatalities. Italy's former prime minister and media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi is hospitalised "as a precaution" his entourage says, after he tested positive for the coronavirus earlier this week. The AGI news agency says Berlusconi, who turns 84 at the end of this month, was hospitalised in a room that he often occupies when staying at San Raffaele hospital in Milan. AGI said this indicates that his condition is not serious, or he would be in intensive care. The US economy added 1.4 million jobs in August and the unemployment rate fell to 8.4 percent, the Labor Department says, a sign of the continuing recovery from the pandemic. Canada also added 246,000 jobs in August as most coronavirus restrictions eased and businesses reopened, cutting the unemployment rate to 10.2 percent, the national statistics agency says. burs-acm-jmy/pvh
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