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Germany’s national disease control center reported a record-high number of more than 50,000 daily coronavirus cases Thursday as the country’s parliament was set to discuss legislation that would provide a new legal framework for coronavirus measures. The Robert Koch Institute registered 50,196 new cases, up from 33,949 daily cases a week earlier. Infections have risen so quickly in recent days that hospitals in especially affected regions canceled planned surgeries again so medical personnel could focus on COVID-19 patients. (Grieshaber, 11/11)

Europe is divided as it enters another Covid-19 winter. In some countries, people are dying from the virus at record rates. Elsewhere, infections are rising—but from low levels that policy makers say are the result of a suite of restrictive policies. Winter is the time of greatest peril in the fight against Covid-19 as people move indoors, often into poorly ventilated spaces, helping the virus to spread. Health systems are also often strained by other seasonal ailments, such as flu. In Italy, Spain and much of the rest of Southern Europe and France, deaths, hospitalizations and confirmed infections from the virus are rising, but still relatively subdued. (Sylvers and Pancevski, 11/10)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) added the Netherlands and Cayman Islands to its travel warning list on Monday due to the “very high” levels of COVID-19 in both countries. The CDC said the spread of COVID-19 in the Netherlands and Cayman Islands reached the threshold for Level 4, the highest level on the agency's scale. The agency advised individuals not to travel to the two countries or to ensure they are fully vaccinated if travel is unavoidable. (Schnell, 11/10)

Nearly 83% of hospital beds designated for COVID-19 patients are filled, Russian authorities said Wednesday, as daily tallies of new infections and deaths remain at all-time highs. Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova told a government meeting Wednesday that 82.8% of 301,500 hospital beds reserved for coronavirus patients were filled as of Tuesday morning. (Litvinova, 11/10)

One of India's most sacred rivers appears to be coated with a thick layer of snow. Except it isn't. A vast stretch of the Yamuna river is covered with white toxic foam, caused in part by pollutants discharged from industries ringing New Delhi. (Ganguly and Qadri, 11/11)

China’s population may already be shrinking, with data so far this year showing a continued drop in the number of births, an independent Chinese demographer has predicted. There will be between 9.5 million to 10.5 million newborn babies this year, independent demographer He Yafu wrote on his personal social media account Thursday. “If the number of newborns is near the lower limit of the prediction, that means the population will register negative growth” as there’s been an average of about 10 million deaths a year recently, He wrote. (11/11)