TOP HEADLINES 

· Hungary reported a jump in daily cases to 3,125 on Wednesday, its highest daily tally since April, the government said, urging people to take up vaccines that are widely available nationwide.

Hungary has seen a steady increase in infections over the past weeks - with Wednesday's numbers jumping from 1,668 daily new cases a week ago - but its daily new infections still remain below the numbers elsewhere in central and eastern Europe.

· Protecting the Beijing Winter Olympics from the coronavirus is the "biggest challenge", organizers said Wednesday, as millions of people in China were under stay-at-home orders to contain small outbreaks 100 days before the Games.

In February the the Chinese capital will become the first host of the Summer and Winter Games, and last week welcomed the Olympic flame with a low-key ceremony.

· Russia on Wednesday reported 1,123 new COVID-19 deaths, its highest one-day toll of the pandemic amid a surge in cases that have forced officials to partially reimpose some lockdown measures.

The coronavirus task force also said it had recorded 36,582 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, including 5,789 in Moscow.

Russia will go into a nationwide workplace shutdown in the first week of November, and the capital Moscow will reimpose a partial lockdown from Thursday, with only essential shops like pharmacies and supermarkets allowed to remain open.

· Czechia reported 6,274 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, almost doubling in a week as the country struggles to contain a new wave of the pandemic.

The latest number is the highest since April 7 in the country of 10.7 million.

Hospitalizations have risen to 1,146 as of October 26, up from 249 at the start of the month, with 166 people in intensive care, data from the Health Ministry showed.

· Bulgaria's infections have risen by 6,813 in the past 24 hours, a record daily increase as the country grapples with a fourth wave of the pandemic, official data showed on Wednesday.

The virus has killed 124 people in the past 24 hours, according to the figures, bringing the total death toll to 23,440.

More than 7,300 people were in COVID-19 wards as hospitals across the Balkan country struggled to deal with the inflow of coronavirus patients amid a shortage of medical staff.

· Poland reported 8,361 daily COVID-19 cases and 133 deaths on Wednesday, the health ministry said, with the number of new cases reaching the highest level since late April.

Central and eastern Europe, where vaccination rates are lower than in the west of the continent, has seen a surge in cases in recent weeks, with officials in Poland urging the public to get vaccinated and follow the restrictions in place.

·  Daniel Andrews, Premier of the Australian state of Victoria, said his government will not apply for travel permits to allow unvaccinated tennis players to compete at the Australian Open in the state after Prime Minister Scott Morrison indicated they would be allowed into the country.

Morrison said earlier on Wednesday that unvaccinated players would be free to compete at the Grand Slam after undergoing a two-week quarantine provided that Victoria, which hosts the tournament in Melbourne, applied for permits for them.

· Britain reported 263 deaths within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test on Tuesday, the highest daily total reported since March 3 following a steady rise in cases in the last month, according to government data.

Another 40,954 cases were reported, a rise on Monday's 36,567, although the running total for the last seven days had flattened, the data showed. 

· A report by UK MPs has denounced the government's Track and Trace program, reporting that its outcomes have been "muddled," while a number of its aims have been "overstated or not achieved."

The program had a budget of $30.2 billion in 2020–21 and it estimates that it spent $18.5 billion of that. Among other charges, the Public Accounts Committee highlighted that the program has not developed a flexible approach to using laboratories that "risks wasting public money.” 

· The leader of Britain's opposition Labour Party, Keir Starmer, tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, a spokesperson for the party said. 

His parliamentary duties were fulfilled by former Labour leader, now business spokesman Ed Miliband as Starmer was isolating. 

· Romanian senators narrowly rejected a bill on Wednesday requiring medical staff, public sector workers, and those of large privately-owned firms to hold a COVID-19 health pass, but parliament's lower house has the final say and could revive it. 

The bill, introduced by centrist lawmakers and designed to boost vaccine uptake, was two votes short of the required majority to pass. 

· Germany's pandemic-related state of emergency looks set to expire next month after the three political parties in talks to form the next government said they did not support extending it. 

The state of emergency that enabled the federal and state government to impose measures like lockdowns and curfews without a parliamentary vote is set to lapse on November 25 unless parliament agrees to extend it. 

The Social Democrats, Greens, and Free Democrats, the three parties which hope to agree on a coalition government by early December after a national election last month, hold a parliamentary majority.