Samara Heisz/iStockBy MORGAN WINSOR, ABC News
(NEW YORK) — A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than one million people worldwide.
Over 36.1 million people across the globe have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new respiratory virus, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The criteria for diagnosis — through clinical means or a lab test — has varied from country-to-country. Still, the actual numbers are believed to be much higher due to testing shortages, many unreported cases and suspicions that some national governments are hiding or downplaying the scope of their outbreaks.
Since the first cases were detected in China in December, the virus has rapidly spread to every continent except Antarctica.
The United States is the worst-affected country, with more than 7.5 million diagnosed cases and at least 211,834 deaths.
California has the most cases of any U.S. state, with more than 841,000 people diagnosed, according to Johns Hopkins data. California is followed by Texas and Florida, with over 803,000 cases and over 722,000 cases, respectively.
More than 190 vaccine candidates for COVID-19 are being tracked by the World Health Organization, at least 10 of which are in crucial phase three studies. Of those 10 in late-stage trials, there are currently five that will be available in the United States if approved.
Here’s how the news is developing Thursday. All times Eastern:
Oct 08, 5:17 am
US reports over 50,000 new cases
There were 50,341 new cases of COVID-19 identified in the United States on Wednesday, driving the country’s cumulative total past 7.5 million, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
The latest daily tally is up by nearly 10,000 from the previous day but is still under the country’s record set on July 16, when there were 77,255 new cases in a 24-hour reporting period.
An additional 915 coronavirus-related fatalities were also recorded Wednesday, down from a peak of 2,666 new fatalities reported on April 17.
A total of 7,550,731 people in the United States have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and at least 211,834 of them have died, according to Johns Hopkins. The cases include people from all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C. and other U.S. territories as well as repatriated citizens.
By May 20, all U.S. states had begun lifting stay-at-home orders and other restrictions put in place to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. The day-to-day increase in the country’s cases then hovered around 20,000 for a couple of weeks before shooting back up and crossing 70,000 for the first time in mid-July. The daily tally of new cases has gradually come down since then but has hovered around 40,000 in recent weeks.
Oct 08, 4:38 am
Czech Republic sees record rise in cases for second straight day
The Czech Republic identified 5,335 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, its highest single-day rise yet.
It’s the first time the central European nation has registered more than 5,000 new cases in one day. The previous record of 4,457 new cases in a 24-hour reporting period was just set the day before.
The cumulative total now stands at 95,360 confirmed cases with 829 deaths, according to the latest data from the Czech health ministry.
More than 43,000 cases were active Wednesday, including 1,563 patients who remained hospitalized for COVID-19, while over 50,000 have recovered from the disease, according to the health ministry data.
The Czech Republic has the highest rate of COVID-19 infection in Europe. Over the past two weeks, the country of 10.7 million people has reported 346.1 cases per 100,000, surpassing Spain for the first time, which has seen 305 cases per 100,000, according to data published Tuesday by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.
Earlier this week, the Czech government declared another state of emergency due to the rapid increase in COVID-19 infections, after having relaxed almost all restrictions over the summer. The government is expected on Friday to announce new measures to contain the outbreak.
The Czech Republic is among a handful of European countries, including France, Spain and the United Kingdom, that are grappling with an uptick in COVID-19 cases as a second wave of infections hits the region.
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.