The World Health Organization on Tuesday urged Russia to follow the established guidelines for producing safe and effective vaccines after Moscow announced plans to start swiftly producing COVID-19 jabs.

France could "change course at any moment" to a runaway spread of coronavirus, the government's COVID-19 scientific council warned Tuesday as official data showed the first rise in intensive care patients since April.

The World Health Organization said Monday that there might never be a "silver bullet" answer to the new coronavirus, despite the rush to discover effective vaccines.

Russia said Monday it aims to launch mass production of a coronavirus vaccine next month and turn out "several million" doses per month by next year.

The number of coronavirus cases recorded worldwide topped 18 million on Monday with the illness continuing its march, after Australia's second-largest city imposed a curfew to halt the spread.

The US notched 47,508 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours on Sunday, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

More than 27 million people in the Philippines -- about a quarter of the population -- will go back into lockdown Tuesday after overwhelmed health workers warned the country was losing the battle against the coronavirus.

Since the beginning of June, when much of the country emerged from one of the world's longest stay-at-home orders, confirmed infections in the archipelago have increased fivefold, surging past 100,000.

More than 200,000 people have died from coronavirus in Latin America and the Caribbean, with Brazil and Mexico accounting for nearly three-quarters of those deaths, according to an AFP tally compiled from official sources at 0830 GMT on Sunday.

Iran on Sunday reported its highest single-day novel coronavirus infection count in nearly a month, warning that most of its provinces have been hit by a resurgence of the disease.

Australia's second-largest city imposed an overnight curfew on Sunday to halt the spread of coronavirus cases, as South Africa's infection count topped more than half a million.