BEIJING, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- The following are the updates on the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

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OTTAWA -- Canadians have varied reactions to the restrictions against the COVID-19 pandemic as the number of cases continues to go down, a new survey has found.

A survey issued by Canada's non-profit Angus Reid Institute on Thursday showed that 52 percent of Canadians said the current restrictions against the COVID-19 are about right, and 20 percent said controls go too far, while 28 percent said they are not restrictive enough.

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UNITED NATIONS -- Two in five schools (43 percent) around the world lacked access to basic handwashing with soap and water in 2019, a key condition for schools to be able to operate safely amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a UN report has found.

About 818 million children lacked basic handwashing facilities at their schools, which put them at increased risk of COVID-19 and other transmittable diseases, according to a report of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization that was released on Thursday.

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CHICAGO -- An experimental vaccine, made from a mild virus genetically modified to carry a key gene from the COVID-19 virus, is effective at preventing pneumonia in mice infected with the COVID-19 virus, according to a study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

The researchers created the experimental vaccine by genetically modifying vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), a virus of livestock that causes only a mild, short-lived illness in people. They swapped out one gene from VSV for the gene for spike from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The hybrid virus is called VSV-SARS-CoV-2, according to a news release posted on the university's website on Tuesday.

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NEW YORK -- Global COVID-19 deaths surpassed 750,000 on Thursday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

With the total COVID-19 cases around the world reaching 20,651,113, the death toll worldwide rose to 750,030 as of 8:27 a.m. (1227 GMT), the CSSE data showed.

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MOSCOW -- More than 20 countries are interested in getting Russia's COVID-19 vaccine, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Thursday.

Russia maintains "the closest contact with the World Health Organization on the development and future use" of the vaccine, Zakharova told a news briefing.

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HELSINKI -- Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) on Thursday recommended citizens to use face masks in confined spaces where a safe social distance is not possible to protect others.

Persons with symptoms of COVID-19 should avoid social contact and apply for a testing immediately, the THL added. Enditem

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