Coronavirus: Latest global developments

HERE are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis:

- 700,000 dead in US -

US fatalities from Covid-19 surpass 700,000, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University, a toll roughly equivalent to the population of the nation's capital Washington.

The grim threshold comes with an average of well over 1,000 dying each day, in a country where 55.7 percent of the population is now fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

- French anti-pass protesters brave rain -

Several thousand people opposed to France's "health pass" -- showing that the holder has been double vaccinated to gain entry to public places -- stage protests, braving rain.

- Vaccine soon to be compulsory for California school pupils -

Covid vaccinations will be compulsory for all school students in California, the state's governor announces -- a first in the United States, where vaccine hesitancy has slowed efforts to end the pandemic.

The plan will be phased in as Food and Drug Administration regulators grant full approval for use on younger age groups.

- Berlin techno mecca Berghain reopens -

Berlin's famed Berghain night club reopens its doors, 19 months after it shut up shop due to the pandemic.

Proof of vaccination or a recent recovery from the virus will be required to make it inside the club housed in a former power plant in the German capital.

- Nicaragua gives green light to Cuba vaccines -

Nicaragua, which faces a sharp rise in coronavirus cases, approves the emergency use of the two antiviral vaccines developed by Cuba, Abdala and Soberana 02, the public company BioCubaFarma announces on Twitter.

- Anti-vaccine protest in Bucharest -

Thousands protest at a demonstration in the Romanian capital Bucharest which was organised by the far-right against new rules on Covid vaccination.

Twelve thousand new coronavirus cases are recorded in the country, the biggest daily figure since the start of the pandemic.

- Guadeloupe to start lifting restrictions -

Guadeloupe will begin its first phase of deconfinement on October 8 in view of a "decrease in the indicators of the epidemic for nearly 6 consecutive weeks", the prefect of the French island announces.

- More than 4.7 million dead -

The coronavirus has killed at least 4,789,971 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to an AFP compilation of official data.

The US is the worst-affected country with 700,502 deaths, followed by Brazil with 597,255, India with 448,573, Mexico 277,978 and Russia which has a death toll of 209,028.