Pedestrians wearing protective masks walk past the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York on Oct 2. (PHOTO / BLOOMBERG)

NEW YORK / LONDON / DERLIN / CARIO / TORONTO / SANTIAGO - Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Bill Stepien, tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday, becoming the latest associate of the US president to become infected with the disease, spokesman Tim Murtaugh said late Friday.

Stepien was promoted to run the struggling campaign this summer to help revive Trump’s re-election bid. The development, which was reported earlier by Politico, came hours after Trump was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for treatment for COVID-19.

The outbreak of coronavirus in the White House constitutes a disease cluster and it needs to be taken seriously, said Mike Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization’s Health Emergencies Program.

The White House National Security Council on Friday ordered all staff to begin wearing masks in White House common areas and to “avoid unnecessary visits” to the West Wing, according to an internal email.

The number of new coronavirus cases in New York reached nearly 1,600 the highest since late-May, as the state looks to quell several hot spots.

Republican US Senator Thom Tillis also tested positive for the coronavirus, he said in a statement on Friday.

Coronavirus cases in the US increased 0.7 percent as compared with the same time Thursday to 7.3 million, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg News. The increase was in line with the average daily gain of 0.6 percent over the past week. Deaths rose to 208,304.

READ MORE: Trump in hospital, treated with experimental antibody cocktail

EU

A Summit of European Union leaders on Friday morning went off topic, highlighting increasing alarm across the 27 nation-bloc about mass flare-ups in new infections. Leaders were supposed to debate industrial policy, how to reduce “strategic dependencies” on complex supply chains, and then get a brief update on Brexit. 

Instead, they spent the entire morning talking about the pandemic, a topic which wasn’t even on the agenda of the summit, according to two officials familiar with the matter.

Germany

Germany’s public health authority advised against travel to almost the whole of the Netherlands, as well as Scotland and parts of northern England.

Germany’s Robert Koch Institute added all of the Netherlands to its list of risk areas, with the exception of Zeeland and Limburg, after its neighbor reported a record number of new infections on Friday. German cases rose for the third straight day with 2,835 new infections, the highest daily increase since April 18.

German coronavirus cases rose for the third day with new infections reaching 2,835, the highest daily increase since April 18, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. 

Austria 

Austria had more than 1,000 new cases, the second-highest daily increase since the outbreak of the pandemic.

Russia

Russia reported 9,859 new cases in the last day, the highest daily increase since May 15. Moscow ordered schools closed for two weeks from Monday and top officials around the country have called on residents to wear masks and observe other precautions as hospital admissions have spiked.

“We don’t really have a choice: either we follow all the safety measures prescribed by doctors and take the pressure off hospital beds or we’ll have to go into self-isolation, which we don’t want to do,” Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said Friday.

Spain

Some 4.8 million Madrid residents will be barred from leaving the area from Friday evening, making it the first European capital back into lockdown due to surging coronavirus cases.

Restaurants and bars in the Spanish capital and nine satellite towns will shut early and slash capacity by half in what has again become Europe’s worst infection hotspot.

The new restrictions, to start at 10 pm, are not as strict as the previous lockdown from March, when people were barred from leaving their homes. However, authorities advised residents not to move around unless absolutely necessary.

Spain recorded a total of 789,932 coronavirus cases as of Friday, a rise of 11,325 since Thursday. There have been 32,086 fatalities. Daily deaths are now around their highest levels since early May but far below the late March record of nearly 900.

France

France reported 12,148 new coronavirus cases in the past day. This means the weekly pace of infections has slowed for a fifth day, with the seven-day rolling average of new infections falling to 10,946, the lowest since Sept 23.

Deaths linked to the virus increased by 136 to 32,155, the most in a week with inclusion of several days of data from nursing homes.

French Health Minister Olivier Veran said he may have to declare Paris and its suburbs as high-risk areas as soon as Monday, which would trigger closing bars and restaurants.

UK

A mass roll-out of the coronavirus vaccine could see every UK adult receive a jab within six months or less of approval, The Times reports, citing government sources. Scientists working on the vaccine in Oxford said regulators could approve the inoculation before the end of the year.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock will announce next week the creation of a “traffic light” system to help decide which regions of England should go into lockdown, the Telegraph reported. The measure will work alongside the NHS Test and Trade app, which people will use when entering and leaving pubs, restaurants and bars.

Northumbria University, in northeast England, said on Friday it has been hit by a mass outbreak of COVID-19 with at least 770 students testing positive for the virus.

Poland

Poland set a new daily case record of 2,367, up from 2,292 the previous day. The country recorded 34 deaths in the past 24 hours. That brings Poland’s case total to 98,140 and deaths to 2,604.

Ireland

The spread of the coronavirus in Ireland is now “a matter of serious concern” nationwide, the health ministry said, as it reported the most new coronavirus cases since April for the second day in a row. There were 470 newly confirmed cases, with one death. The increase came on the same day Northern Ireland reported a record number of newly confirmed coronavirus infections.

Slovenia 

Slovenia reported 238 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, a new daily record since March, bringing the total to over 6,100, according to the latest statistics released by the government on Friday.

Two new deaths took the toll to 154.

A man looks out at the Manhattan skyline in a Brooklyn neighborhood on Sept 29, 2020 in New York City. (PHOTO / BLOOMBERG)

Greece

Greece reported 460 cases Friday, the highest one-day increase since the beginning of the pandemic, bringing the total number to 19,346. Employees at a canning factory in the north of the country accounted for 114 of the cases. Athens and the capital’s Attica region accounted for 207 of the daily total.

Another five people died, for a total of 398. The number of cases in younger age groups continues to increase with the average age of people testing positive for the virus at 39.

Italy

Italy reported 2,499 new coronavirus cases Friday, from 2,548 a day earlier and above the seven-day average of 1,870. Another 20 deaths were reported, in line with previous days.

The second wave is putting pressure on hospitals especially in the southern region of Campania, which has accounted for the most cases in the past few days. 

Non-intensive care hospital beds are running out at Ospedale dei Colli in Naples as in other facilities in the region, the hospital’s general director Maurizio Di Mauro said on Radio CRC. The fact that ICU beds aren’t under pressure yet doesn’t mean that the virus is weaker, but that the illness is being tackled better than earlier this year, he added.

Romania 

Romania reported a record 2,343 daily COVID-19 infections on Friday and a record number of people hospitalized in intensive-care units, two weeks after schools reopened in the nation with the highest death toll in eastern Europe. A full lockdown isn’t on the cards and the government will only impose targeted restrictions to contain local outbreaks.

Hungary

Hungary’s new coronavirus infections also hit a record at 1,322, while 17 people died on Thursday, data by the state task force show. Prime Minister Viktor Orban has signaled he intends to avoid a a full lockdown similar to that in spring after counter-measures pushed the country’s deficit into 9.1 percent of GDP in the second quarter.

Canada

Canada’s Quebec province reported more than 1,000 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, as infections mount despite recent efforts aimed at limiting social gatherings blamed for the pick up among residents under the age of 30.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last week warned Canadians to be prepared for a fall that “could be much worse than the spring,” as the country enters a second wave of the pandemic. The country’s most populous provinces, Ontario and Quebec, are taking targeted measures to avoid broad-based lockdowns.

Trudeau on Friday also announced 600 million Canadian dollars in new funding for the country's small and medium-sized businesses to deal with possible lockdowns amid a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Friday, Quebec reported 1,052 new cases and seven new deaths. Canada reported 160,535 total cases on Thursday, an increase of 1,777 on the day, and 22 new deaths, taking the total fatalities from the pandemic to 9,319 deaths, latest federal government data showed.

ALSO READ: Germany approves 3rd trial of COVID-19 vaccine candidate

Argentina 

Argentina added 14,687 new cases, taking the country’s total to 779,689, according to the government’s evening report.

There were 312 deaths in the last 24 hours, total the death toll to 20,599.

A sign reading "COVID-19 Keep Apart", sits on a temporary protective pedestrian barrier on Oxford Street in central London, UK, on Oct 1. (PHOTO / BLOOMBERG)

Brazil

The Brazilian government launched on Friday a national vaccination campaign focused on updating children's vaccine records, with the prevention of measles and polio being a high-level priority.

The Ministry of Health campaign, the Brazil Vaccine Movement, will begin on Monday and continue until Oct 30 with the aim of immunizing the nation's children and raising awareness about the importance of vaccination.

Brazil’s new cases increased for a second consecutive day to 33,431, though weekly infections appear on track for the lowest number since late May, according to the Health Ministry’s website. The pace of deaths also has been slowing. Another 708 people died of virus-related causes, compared with a daily record of almost 1,600 in late July.

Puerto Rico

The new extension is necessary to gather “complete and valid data” that will “effectively establish the reality of COVID-19 in Puerto Rico,” Health Secretary Lorenzo Gonzalez said in a statement.

Last week, the government ordered Quest Puerto Rico, part of Quest Diagnostics, to suspend operations, citing concerns about the accuracy of its testing.

Colombia 

The number of COVID-19 infections in Colombia rose to 841,531 in the past 24 hours after tests detected 6,192 new cases, the Ministry of Health and Social Protection said Friday.

The death toll climbed to 26,397 after 201 more fatalities were reported over the same period of time.

A total of 753,953 patients have so far recovered, the ministry added.

Chile

Chile registered 1,839 new cases of the novel coronavirus in the last 24 hours, for a total of 466,590 cases, the Ministry of Health announced on Friday.

According to the ministry, the country currently has 14,116 active cases, with 439,607 patients recovered.

Chilean Minister of Health Enrique Paris called on Chileans on Friday to "persevere in prevention measures", especially as quarantines have been lifted in Santiago and other regions as cases of contagion decrease.

Additionally, 45 more deaths were reported over the last 24 hours, bringing the death toll from the virus in the country to 12,867.

Uruguay

Uruguayan Minister of Public Health Daniel Salinas announced on Friday that the country has the novel coronavirus pandemic "under control," with a "manageable" number of active cases.

"We are among the top five countries in terms of health management of the pandemic," said Salinas.

Tunisia 

Tunisia recorded 1,308 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of infections to 19,721 with 271 deaths.

New urgent preventive measures will be taken to combat the rapid spread of COVID-19 in the country, Minister of Health Faouzi Mehdi announced.

In addition, local authorities in three Tunisian provinces including Sousse, Monastir and Sidi Bouzid decided to impose a night curfew from 8 pm until 6 am local time, which took effect on Thursday night and will continue until Oct. 15 according to the pandemic situation in the these provinces.

Egypt 

Egypt registered late on Friday 149 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number in the country to 103,466, said the Health Ministry.

In a statement, the ministry's spokesman Khaled Megahed said 10 patients died from the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 5,956.

Morocco

In Morocco, the tally of COVID-19 cases rose to 128,565 after 2,521 new cases were added, which included 2,263 fatalities and 106,044 recoveries.

Algeria 

Algeria on Friday reported 157 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the tally of the infections to 51,847, the Ministry of Health said.

The ministry also announced eight new fatalities from coronavirus, raising the death toll in the North African country to 1,749.

Libya 

Libya on Friday reported 509 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total confirmed caseload in the country to 35,717, said the National Center for Disease Control.

Meanwhile, 440 patients have recovered in the past 24 hours, bringing the country's total recoveries to 20,334, while 11 patients died during the same period, taking the total deaths to 570, the center said.