What you need to know about the coronavirus right now

Here's what you need to know about the coronavirus right now: Biden to launch COVID-19 task force

President-elect Joe Biden will convene a coronavirus task force on Monday to examine the No. 1 problem confronting him when he takes office in January. Biden is due to meet with an advisory board led by former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler to examine how best to tame the pandemic.

The Democratic former vice president will then give remarks in Wilmington, Delaware, about his plans for tackling COVID-19 and rebuilding the economy. The United States became the first nation worldwide since the pandemic began to surpass 10 million coronavirus infections, according to a Reuters tally on Sunday, as the third wave of the COVID-19 virus surges across the nation.

India's Tata launches faster test India's Tata Group launched a COVID-19 test kit on Monday that it says will process results more easily and faster than the RT-PCR method considered the gold standard for detection, at a time when cases are still rising in the country.

The nasal swab test, developed jointly by Tata and the government, is also more accurate than the rapid antigen test currently favoured in India. Tata Medical and Diagnostics, the healthcare arm of the cars-to-clothes conglomerate, will begin manufacturing 1 million kits a month at its plant in the southern city of Chennai and can then scale up rapidly, CEO Girish Krishnamurthy told Reuters.

Hungary shuts secondary schools, extends curfew Hungary will close secondary schools, universities and restaurants and extend its night-time curfew from Tuesday to curb a fast rise in infections, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said.

The premier, who has up to now refrained from imposing tough measures in a bid to protect the economy, said on Monday large gatherings will also be banned and sports events held behind closed doors. "If coronavirus infections rise at the current pace ... Hungarian hospitals will not be able to cope with the burden," Orban said.

Iran reports record daily cases Iran's health ministry reported on Monday a rise of 10,463 in the number of daily coronavirus cases, bringing total cases in the Middle East's worst-affected country to 692,949.

Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari told state TV that 458 people had died from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, pushing the death toll to 38,749. In Nigeria, looters target warehouses stocked with COVID-19 relief

Looters have been targeting state warehouses across Nigeria stocked with COVID-19 relief supplies which they say should already have gone to the poor and hungry. Authorities denied accusations of food hoarding or plans to sell the supplies. The National Governors Forum, which brings together the heads of Nigeria's 36 states, said some of the looted items were a "strategic reserve ahead of a projected second wave of COVID-19."

But stores of so-called "palliatives", some rotting, months after lockdowns ended, provoked outrage in a nation reeling from spiralling food prices, high unemployment and anti-police brutality protests. (Compiled by Linda Noakes; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)