A man drinks coffee outside a cafe in Santiago, Chile, Sept. 22, 2020. (Photo by Jorge Villegas/Xinhua)

- New cases decline 8 pct in one week in Chile

- Israel reports 1,286 new cases, 306,162 in total

- Portugal sees first drop in active cases since mid-August

- Factory built by Chinese supplies 250,000 test kits to Ethiopian institute

BEIJING, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- The following are the updates on the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

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SANTIAGO -- Chilean Health Minister Enrique Paris said on Tuesday that according to the latest figures on the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country, "the variation in new confirmed cases at the national level decreased by 8 percent in the last seven days and 15 percent in the last 14 days."

He said that the country has reached 494,478 confirmed cases of COVID-19, of which 466,643 have recovered, and 13,702 have died.

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SAN FRANCISCO -- U.S. San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced on Tuesday that the city will reopen "non-essential" offices at limited capacity beginning Oct. 27.

San Francisco will also reopen indoor climbing walls with the same capacity as fitness centers, and personal services can allow limited mask removal for services such as those provided by estheticians. Additionally, fitness centers and institutes of higher education will be able to increase capacity, according to the announcement.

An Israeli medical clown is seen before she visits young patients at the COVID-19 department of Sheba Medical Center in the central Israeli city of Ramat Gan on Oct. 20, 2020. (Photo by Gil Cohen Magen/Xinhua)

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JERUSALEM -- Israel's health ministry reported on Tuesday 1,286 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the tally in the country to 306,162.

The death toll reached 2,278, with 15 new fatalities. The number of patients in serious condition decreased from 634 to 614, out of 1,089 patients currently hospitalized, according to the ministry.

Students wearing face masks are seen on the first day of school for the new academic year at Luis de Freitas Branco high school in Paco de Arcos, near Lisbon, Portugal, on Sept. 14, 2020. (Photo by Petro Fiuza/Xinhua)

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LISBON -- Portugal registered 39,625 active COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, which represented a drop of 71 cases compared with Monday's. It is the first time for this indicator to see a decline since mid-August.

According to the Directorate-General for Health (DGS), the European country recorded 1,932 recoveries in the last 24 hours, bringing down the number of active infections for the first time since Aug. 15. The new infections over the past 24 hours reached 1,876, taking the total of confirmed cases to 103,736 since the beginning of the pandemic.

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PARIS -- A total of 20,468 new COVID-19 cases were registered in the past 24 hours in France, while the epidemic-related fatalities rose sharply by 262, health authorities said on Tuesday.

Since the COVID-19 outbreak in the country, 930,745 people have been diagnosed with the COVID-19, the eighth-highest in the world. Some 1,829 clusters were still under investigation, of which 148 were detected from Monday to Tuesday.

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RABAT -- Morocco announced on Tuesday 3,254 new COVID-19 cases, taking the tally in the North African country to 179,003.

The number of recoveries from the coronavirus in Morocco increased to 148,838 after 2,417 more were added, while the death toll rose by 51 to 3,027, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.

Photo taken on Sept. 22, 2020 shows facilities at the BGI Ethiopia COVID-19 test kit factory in the Bole Lemi industrial park on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia. (Xinhua/Wang Shoubao)

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ADDIS ABABA -- Ethiopian Minister of Health Lia Tadesse on Tuesday said a recently inaugurated Chinese built factory has supplied the first 250,000 COVID-19 test kits to the east African country's health authorities.

Tadesse said during a meeting held in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa evaluating Ethiopia's eight months' performance in the fight against the spread of COVID-19 disease. ■