People wear masks while lining up in front of a grocery store in New York on November 12, 2020. (Photo: Xinhua/VNA)

The US tops the world in the number of cases (11.8 million) and fatalities (256,000). The US transmission rate has shown so sign of slowing down. The average rate was 150,000 cases per day over the past week. One day the rate surged to 180,000. On Thursday, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio closed the New York City public school system, the largest in the US. Local students will learn online indefinitely.

The same day, the US, Canada, and Mexico agreed to extend border restrictions until late December to slow the spread of the virus.

There have been over 2 million cases in France, the fourth most infectious globally and the most in Europe, surpassing Russia.

Other COVID-19 hotspots in Europe include Russia, Spain, the UK, Germany, and Italy where the single-day record keeps going up. By Thursday noon, Europe had recorded 14.6 million cases, up 245,000 from the previous day and 35% of the worldwide total.