A woman passes by a graffiti work of "NaLata International Festival of Urban Art" amid the COVID-19 outbreak in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Aug. 20, 2020. (File photo: Xinhua)

The total number of deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide has increased to 794,274 with the global confirmed cases reaching 22,709,116 as of 9 pm BJT on Friday, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University (JHU). 

Current situation (data as of 9 pm BJT, August 21):

A Chinese inactivated COVID-19 vaccine has started phase-3 clinical trials in Peru, according to the vaccine developer China National Biotec Group (CNBG) affiliated to Sinopharm.

US President Donald Trump has urged universities to keep reopening their campuses, despite reports of COVID-19 cluster outbreaks among students across the country.

India's COVID-19 tally surpassed 2.9 million on Friday as cases in Bangladesh climbed past 290,000, while the Philippines reported 4,786 newly confirmed cases, bringing the total cases in the Southeast Asian country to 182,365.

Russia registered 4,870 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking its total to 946,976, the country's COVID-19 response center said in a statement Friday.

As the support from the central government has boosted its testing capacity, Hong Kong will start a mass screening for COVID-19 on Sept. 1 and aims to complete the testing in no more than two weeks in an effort to bring the severe epidemic situation under control.

The Nepali government on Friday confirmed the record-high single day fatality of 11 deaths due to COVID-19, bringing the death toll to 137.