Coronavirus updates: FSU president tests positive after attending football game

Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza said Tuesday the government is working on a proposal to make the use of face masks outdoors mandatory nationwide, as COVID-19 infections have steadily increased in recent months.

Italy, once the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, gradually loosened restrictions during the spring and summer, following a nearly three-month lockdown that helped get its COVID-19 outbreak under control. But now the country -- like several others across Europe -- is seeing an uptick in infections.

On Saturday, Italy reported 2,844 new cases of COVID-19, its highest single-day jump since April, but still far less than the daily figures being recorded in France, Spain and the United Kingdom as Europe grapples with a second wave of infections.

"We must raise our guard with the awareness that our county is better off than others," Speranza told the lower house of parliament on Tuesday.

The government is expected to announce the new measures by Wednesday. Several regions in Italy have already made mask-wearing compulsory, but there is currently no nationwide mandate.

"Italy, together with Germany, is the one that in the EU is holding up the second wave better," Speranza said. "But we must not have any illusions."

Since the start of the pandemic, Italy's civil protection agency has recorded at least 327,586 confirmed cases with 36,002 deaths.

The European Union's drug regulator has started reviewing a second potential vaccine for COVID-19, which is being developed by Germany's BioNTech in collaboration with American pharmaceutical company Pfizer.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) announced Tuesday that it has begun a "rolling review" of the latest vaccine candidate in an accelerated regulatory approval process, examining the data as it becomes available rather than waiting for the trial to end.

"The start of the rolling review means that the committee has started evaluating the first batch of data on the vaccine, which come from laboratory studies (non-clinical data)," the EMA said in a statement. "This does not mean that a conclusion can be reached yet on the vaccine's safety and effectiveness, as much of the evidence is still to be submitted to the committee."

The agency added that its decision to start the expedited approval process for the vaccine candidate was based on preliminary results from non-clinical and early clinical studies in adults which suggest that the drug triggers the body's immune system to fight COVID-19.

Last week, the EMA began its first review process of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate -- a rolling review of one being developed by U.K.-based pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca in collaboration with England's University of Oxford.

India confirmed another 61,267 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, its lowest single-day increase since Aug. 25.

An additional 884 coronavirus-related fatalities were also recorded. The country's cumulative total now stands at 6,685,082 confirmed cases with 103,569 deaths, according to the latest data from the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

India is only the second country to surpass 6 million total cases, after the United States. The vast nation of 1.3 billion people has the highest COVID-19 infection rate of anywhere in the world, although it is now on a downward trend. India is on track to become the pandemic's worst-hit nation within weeks, overtaking the United States, where more than 7.4 million people have been diagnosed with COVID-19.

India also has the highest number of recovered COVID-19 patients in the world, with nearly 5.7 million people who have survived the disease. The country's recovery rate stands at 84%, according to the health ministry.

Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut, has suspended more than 100 students for violating the school's COVID-19 policies, according to a report by New Haven ABC affiliate WTNH.

University officials confirmed to WTNH that there have been at least 109 suspensions since the start of the fall semester due to various health and safety violations that include not wearing face masks, not social distancing and having unauthorized visitors in residence hall rooms.

The suspended students were informed that they cannot come back to campus for periods ranging from one week to the rest of the semester. They will continue to attend classes remotely in the meantime, according to WTNH.

University leaders hope the suspensions send a clear message that the coronavirus pandemic remains a very real threat and that safety is the number one goal for a successful semester back on campus.

"We want everyone to protect themselves and protect each other so that we can end the semester here on campus and have a full semester of on-campus, on-ground learning,"Larry Weilk, dean of students at Sacred Heart University, told WTNH. "Prior to the start of the year, we developed what we call a pioneer promise where we asked all students faculty and staff to promise to protect themselves, the campus community, and the greater Bridgeport and Fairfield community as well."

"We’re all in this together," he added. "We’re all trying to protect each other and stay healthy."