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By MORGAN WINSOR, ABC News
(NEW YORK) — A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 1.1 million people worldwide.
Over 40.4 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 8.2 million diagnosed cases and at least 220,133 deaths.
California has the most cases of any U.S. state, with more than 879,000 people diagnosed, according to Johns Hopkins data. California is followed by Texas and Florida, with over 856,000 cases and over 756,000 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 potential vaccines 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 Tuesday. All times Eastern.
Oct 20, 5:30 am
Outbreak at Kansas nursing home kills 10 residents
A COVID-19 outbreak at a privately-owned nursing home in northwestern Kansas has killed at least 10 residents, officials said.
All 62 residents at the Andbe Home in Norton, a four-hour drive from Wichita, have tested positive for COVID-19. Ten have since died, one remains hospitalized and the other 51 are being cared for at the nursing home, according to a press release from the Norton County Health Department.
Some staff members have also tested positive for COVID-19 and the remaining staff are being tested. The Norton County Health Department said it has been working with the Andbe Home, Norton County Hospital and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment regarding the outbreak.
“Steps are being taken to prevent any further outbreak including quarantining residents in their room and not allowing outside visitors into the facility,” the agency said in Monday’s press release. “Family members of the residents have been notified.”
Northwestern Kansas has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic in recent weeks, and Norton County had the greatest number of new cases per 100,000 residents of any county in the United States for the two weeks ending Sunday, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.
Cases in Norton County, which is home to some 5,400 residents, increased from 46 two weeks ago to 340 as of Monday, according to data from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
Oct 20, 5:06 am
Analysis shows rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations in 41 US states
An ABC News analysis of COVID-19 trends across all 50 U.S. states as well as Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico found there were increases in hospitalizations over the past two weeks in 41 states.
The analysis also found increases in newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 in 39 states, increases in the daily positivity rate of COVID-19 tests in 27 states and increases in daily COVID-19 death tolls in 13 states.
Over the last five weeks, cases have been steadily increasing across the nation. The United States is currently averaging over 55,000 new cases a day — the highest that average has been since Aug. 5. New cases have surged by over 61% since Sept. 12. Meanwhile, current COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to hover between 36,000 and 37,000.
In the past week alone, the country has recorded nearly 386,000 new cases, including two days where there were over 60,000 cases reported — the highest daily figures since late July.
Sixteen states reported record weekly increases in new cases. Fourteen states hit a record number of current COVID-19 hospitalizations last week, while two states saw a record number of current hospitalizations in a day. Two states reported their highest weekly death tolls from COVID-19.
This week, the United States is on track to top one million cases for the month of October, making it the fourth month on record to surpass the grim milestone.
The trends were all analyzed from data collected and published by the COVID Tracking Project over the past two weeks, using the linear regression trend line of the seven-day moving average to examine whether a state’s key indicators were increasing, decreasing or remained flat.
Oct 20, 4:36 am
US reports more than 58,000 new cases as death toll tops 220,000
There were 58,387 new cases of COVID-19 identified in the United States on Monday, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
The latest daily tally is up by more than 10,000 from the previous day but remains under the country’s record set on July 16, when there were 77,255 new cases in a 24-hour-reporting period.
An additional 445 coronavirus-related fatalities were also recorded Monday, up by 56 from the previous day’s death toll and down from a peak of 2,666 new fatalities reported on April 17.
A total of 8,214,754 people in the United States have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and at least 220,133 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 started to climb again in recent weeks.
The number of new COVID-19 cases recorded in the United States continued to increase by double digits in week-over-week comparisons, while the number of new deaths from the disease also ticked upward, according to an internal memo from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that was obtained by ABC News on Monday night.
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