The World Health Organization said Friday that the northern hemisphere is facing a critical moment in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, as a large number of countries are witnessing a steady increase in the number of infections.

"The next few months will be very difficult, and some countries are facing a dangerous path," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the Organization, said during a video conference.

Corona virus has killed at least one million and 139 thousand and 406 people in the world since the WHO office in China reported the outbreak of the disease in late December.

More than 41 million and 767,540 confirmed injuries have been recorded, while at least 28 million and 531 thousand and 800 people have recovered.

On Friday, the United States recorded about 80,000 new cases of Covid-19 within 24 hours, which is considered a record, according to the Johns Hopkins University reference that updates its data constantly, bringing the total number of infections to about 8.5 million since the beginning of the pandemic.

The north of the country and the Midwest are witnessing the worst outbreaks of the virus, at a time about 35 out of 50 states are witnessing an increase in the number of infections.

The 24-hour death toll has remained broadly stable since the beginning of autumn, with between 700 and 800 new deaths recorded.

In all, more than 223,000 people in the country have died from the virus.

Free vaccine in America

On Friday, the Democratic candidate for the US presidential elections, Joe Biden, pledged to provide a vaccine against the emerging corona virus for free "for everyone" as part of his national plan to combat the epidemic, if he wins the elections.

And President Donald Trump, lagging behind his rival in opinion polls, also stressed that the vaccine should be provided for free.

Democrats blame Trump for the lack of a robust federal response to the pandemic in the United States.

And in Mexico, the Ministry of Health announced on Friday that 6604 new cases of the emerging coronavirus and 418 deaths were recorded, bringing the official number of cases to 880,775, and the deaths to 88,312.

Health officials said the true number of infected people was likely much higher than the confirmed cases.

In France, the number of injuries since the start of the outbreak exceeded the one million mark on Friday, while the situation is deteriorating with the country registering more than 40,000 new infections in 24 hours, according to the French Public Health Authority.

Protests

On Friday, the Italian city of Naples witnessed clashes between security forces and protesters rejecting the night curfew imposed on the city and other cities after the rapid rise in the new Corona virus infections.

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets at night in Naples, the capital of the Campania region (south), to reject the previously announced curfew, which began Friday night to Saturday to counter the outbreak of the virus.

And according to what was reported by several local newspapers, the protesters threw sound bombs at the security forces, torches, and cartridges, and the latter responded by throwing teargas canisters.

It also reported that many clashes between the two sides occurred in separate parts of Naples, which resulted in injuries.

A group of protesters headed to the district administration headquarters, holding a sign that read, "If you are going to lock us up, you are obliged to pay us money."

In the capital, Rome, a number of protesters, rejecting the night curfew, also set fire to the streets.

For its part, the National Health Commission in China said today, Saturday, that the mainland recorded 28 new cases of Coronavirus, up from 18 the previous day.

The committee added in a statement that all new cases came from abroad.

The commission also stated that it recorded 27 new cases without symptoms, up from 11 the previous day.

She added that by Friday, the total number of confirmed infections on the mainland reached 85,775, while the number of deaths remained unchanged at 4,634.

Resume tests

AstraZeneca reported Friday that it has resumed trials in the United States of an experimental vaccine to prevent the Corona virus, after approval by US regulators.

On September 6, the company suspended trials of its potential experimental coronavirus vaccine in the United States, after a report that a participant in the UK trials had a serious neurological disease believed to be transverse myelitis.