BEIJING, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- The following are the updates on the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

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MOSCOW -- Russia registered 4,729 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking its national caseload to 1,000,048, the country's COVID-19 response center said in a statement Tuesday.

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SEOUL -- South Korea on Tuesday proposed a record-high government budget for 2021 to bolster economic recovery amid uncertainty over the COVID-19 pandemic.

Proposal for the 2021 fiscal budget was set at 555.8 trillion won (469.7 billion U.S. dollars), 8.5 percent higher than this year's budget, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

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BEIJING -- A full decoupling from China is economically and, for some countries, politically unfeasible, a recent report by London-based think tank International Institute for Strategic Studies has said.

The report, titled "COVID-19: Global trade and supply chains after the pandemic" and conducted by independent consultant David Ramirez, studied possible trade and supply scenarios after the COVID-19 pandemic.

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BEIJING -- An opinion poll by Ipsos for the World Economic Forum shows about three quarters of the respondents in the world would like to get a COVID-19 vaccine if it becomes available.

The survey included responses from nearly 20,000 people from 27 countries, with the most enthusiasm in China and the least in Russia.

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NEW YORK -- Global COVID-19 deaths surpassed 850,000 on Tuesday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

The global case count reached 25,484,767, with a total of 850,535 deaths worldwide as of 12:28 a.m. (0428 GMT), the CSSE data showed.

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MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's Health Ministry reported 3,719 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, bringing its national caseload to 599,560.

Meanwhile, 256 new deaths were reported, bringing Mexico's death toll to 64,414, the ministry said.

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HONG KONG -- Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Carrie Lam Tuesday urged the public to actively join the Universal Community Testing Program launched by the HKSAR government to help break down the chain of transmission.

As of Tuesday morning, about 10,000 people have been tested for COVID-19 under the testing program launched today, Lam said at a press briefing ahead of an Executive Council meeting.

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BEIJING -- With a mixture of nerves and excitement, many students in China kicked off a new school year on Tuesday.

In Wuhan, a megacity once hit-hard by the novel coronavirus, a total of 2,842 kindergartens, primary and secondary schools opened their doors Tuesday to welcome about 1.4 million students.