COVID-19: What you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic on 8 October

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have now passed 36.1 million globally, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. The number of confirmed deaths stands at over 1.05 million.

A cluster of cases in Victoria, Australia, is threatening to slow the easing of restrictions in the state.

Wisconsin, USA, will open a field hospital to handle a surge of COVID-19 cases. It will open next week after hospitalizations across the state nearly tripled over the last month.

Italy will make testing compulsory on travellers from the UK, Netherlands, Belgium and the Czech Republic as cases rise across Europe.

The spread of COVID-19 in Ireland has reached a phase of 'exponential growth', a leading public health official said yesterday. Philip Nolan, Head of the National Public Health Emergency Team's COVID-19 modelling group, warned of the 'significant challenge' to society.

France has reported a record daily rise in cases - almost 19,000. Hospitalizations for the disease have also hit a three-month high. President Macron has said there will be further restrictions.

The G20 should offer poorer nations a longer debt freeze and other help to protect the global economy, leading business and labour groups have said. “The required contribution from the world’s leading economies is minute compared to the social and economic costs of inaction,” the International Chamber of Commerce, the International Trade Union Confederation, and Global Citizen, a group pushing to end extreme poverty by 2030, said in an open letter.

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Brazil passed 5 million yesterday. It's the world's third-most hit country in terms of cases, behind the USA and India.

It's also approaching 150,000 deaths - the second-worst hit country after the USA. The rolling daily average for last week was 658 deaths per day.

The number of new daily cases and deaths have dropped since late July, though. Last week's rolling average was 26,140 new cases a day - a drop of nearly half compared to July.

There are concerns that as temperatures rise, and Brazilians return to beaches, restaurants and bars, the country will face a second wave.

Christie’s, the WHO Foundation and UN75 have launched The Future is Unwritten’s Healing Arts Auction as a call-to-action to support a global COVID-19 response through the arts.

The series of auctions aim to increase awareness and raise funds for artists and health professionals to support vulnerable communities.

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said: “This initiative represents a unique opportunity for the art world to step up to this global challenge and support communities on the front line of the pandemic, ensuring everyone, everywhere has the tools they need to overcome it.”