Global report: Covid cases near 30m as China expects vaccine as soon as November

Coronavirus deaths pass 925,000; biosafety head at Chinese CDC says vaccine progress very smooth'; South Korea to secure early vaccines for 30 million

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As global coronavirus cases neared 30 million on Tuesday, a senior health official in China said she expected a vaccine to be publicly available as early as November this year.

According to the Johns Hopkins University Covid-19 tracker, which relies on official government data, there are 29,190,588 confirmed infections worldwide. Deaths stand at 927,245 and are expected to pass 1 million by October.