FACTBOX-Latest on the worldwide spread of coronavirus

* Italy's former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, in hospital after testing positive for coronavirus, has the early stages of double pneumonia, national news agency ANSA reported on Friday. ASIA-PACIFIC * Japan's government said on Friday it would bear the cost of providing coronavirus vaccines to the populace, as it aims for a comprehensive inoculation against the pandemic. * South Korea's top medical body faced a rift on Friday after trainee doctors rejected a deal by its leader to end a two-week-old strike, although the government backed down from reform plans aimed at averting future epidemics.

The World Health Organization does not expect there to be widespread vaccinations against COVID-19 until the middle of next year, a spokeswoman said on Friday, stressing the importance of rigorous checks on their effectiveness and safety.

DEATHS AND INFECTIONS * For an interactive graphic tracking the global spread, open https://tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7 in an external browser.

* For a U.S.-focused tracker with state-by-state and county map, open https://tmsnrt.rs/2w7hX9T in an external browser. * Eikon users, see MacroVitals (cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?navid=1592404098) for a case tracker and summary of news.

EUROPE * Russia's "Sputnik-V" COVID-19 vaccine produced an antibody response in all participants in early-stage trials, according to results published on Friday by The Lancet medical journal that were hailed by Moscow as an answer to its critics.

* Germany registered around 1,430 virus infections in the past 24 hours, its leading public health institute said on Friday, significantly raising its initial estimate. * Italy's former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, in hospital after testing positive for coronavirus, has the early stages of double pneumonia, national news agency ANSA reported on Friday.

ASIA-PACIFIC * Japan's government said on Friday it would bear the cost of providing coronavirus vaccines to the populace, as it aims for a comprehensive inoculation against the pandemic.

* South Korea's top medical body faced a rift on Friday after trainee doctors rejected a deal by its leader to end a two-week-old strike, although the government backed down from reform plans aimed at averting future epidemics. AMERICAS

* New infections have fallen in the United States for six weeks, while cases in India have surged in recent days as Asia's worst-hit country closes in on Brazil as the world's second-most affected nation from the virus. * Brazil's national tally of infections surpassed 4 million.

* Seven months after Brazil declared a state of emergency because of the pandemic, the country's Health Ministry has distributed less than a third of the 22.9 million available RT-PCR test kits, O Estado de S.Paulo newspaper reported on Friday. * More health workers have died from the novel coronavirus in Mexico than any other country on the planet, Amnesty International said.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA * Iran's death toll from the novel coronavirus rose by 118 to 22,044 health ministry spokeswoman told state TV on Friday, with the total number of identified cases spiking to 382,772.

* Israel will impose a partial national lockdown next week to battle a coronavirus infection surge, the head of its pandemic task force said on Thursday. MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS

* Drugmaker Roche said it had received Emergency Use Authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a test to quickly detect whether a patient has SARS-CoV-2 or one of two forms of influenza. * Contact tracing apps can sharply reduce the spread of the virus even when only a few people use them, a study published by researchers at Google and Oxford University showed.

* Mexico said it plans to take part in stage 3 trials of the Russian coronavirus vaccine in October, part of the nation's efforts to secure supplies of possible future COVID-19 vaccines. ECONOMIC IMPACT

* World shares slipped from record highs on Friday, and were on course for their worst week in more than two months, while gains in bonds and the dollar were modest as investors waited to see if U.S. jobs data triggers a bigger sell-off. * U.S. employers announced another 115,762 job cuts in August, led by struggling airlines as the pandemic weighs on travel and financial assistance from the government lapses.

* Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga signalled readiness to compile a third extra budget to respond to the pandemic if he succeeds outgoing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. (Compiled by Anna Rzhevkina, Anita Kobylinska, Uttaresh.V and Vinay Dwivedi; Editing by Tomasz Janowski, Maju Samuel, Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Giles Elgood)