Millions of people faced new coronavirus restrictions on Wednesday as infections surge, but in one sign of hope, an American firm said it would soon start final-stage human trials for a possible vaccine.

The northern Indian state of Bihar, which has a population around 125 million people, will go into a 15-day lockdown to combat coronavirus, its deputy chief minister said Tuesday.

Morocco on Monday announced a return to lockdown measures in the northern port city of Tangiers to smother a new outbreak of the novel coronavirus, weeks after easing nationwide restrictions.

Latin America surged past the United States and Canada to become the second-worst affected region in the world for coronavirus deaths, according to an AFP tally on Monday. 

Sydney residents were warned Monday to put the brakes on partying as a new coronavirus cluster emerged at a city pub on the heels of a major outbreak in Melbourne.

A local court on Monday suspended a home confinement order imposed on more than 200,000 people in the Spanish region of Catalonia after an upsurge in virus cases.

A top U.S. health official said Sunday that with deaths from COVID-19 expected to continue rising in coming weeks, "everything should be on the table," including renewed lockdowns in hard-hit states.

The novel coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 20,000 people across the Middle East, half of them in Iran, according to an AFP tally at 1000 GMT Sunday based on official tolls.

Iran's supreme leader Sunday called the resurgence of the novel coronavirus in the country "truly tragic" and urged all citizens to help stem what has been the region's deadliest outbreak.

Daniel Gold, who led the team that invented Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system, has a history of safeguarding the country against what he identifies as existential threats.