narvikk/iStockBy MORGAN WINSOR, ABC News
(NEW YORK) — A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 850,000 people worldwide.
Over 25.4 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 six million diagnosed cases and at least 183,598 deaths. California has the most cases of any U.S. state, with more than 712,000 people diagnosed, according to Johns Hopkins data. California is followed by Texas and Florida, with over 632,000 cases and over 623,000 cases respectively.
Nearly 170 vaccine candidates for COVID-19 are being tracked by the World Health Organization, six of which are in crucial phase three trials.
Here’s how the news is developing Tuesday. All times Eastern:
Sep 01, 5:44 am
Russia’s case count surpasses one million
Russia has recorded 4,729 new cases of COVID-19 and 123 related deaths over the past 24 hours, the country’s coronavirus response headquarters said Tuesday morning.
The nation’s cumulative total now stands at 1,000,048 confirmed cases with 17,299 deaths.
Russia is the fourth country in the world to reach the one million mark of COVID-19 diagnoses, after the United States, Brazil and India, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Sep 01, 4:10 am
US case count tops six million
There were 33,888 new cases of COVID-19 identified in the United States on Monday, bringing the country’s cumulative total soaring past six million, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
Monday’s tally is far below the country’s record set on July 16, when 77,255 new cases were identified in a 24-hour reporting period.
An additional 595 coronavirus-related deaths were also recorded Monday. The latest daily death toll is well under the record 2,666 new fatalities that were reported on April 17.
A total of 6,031,013 people in the United States have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and at least 183,598 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.
However, the numbers of new COVID-19 cases and new deaths in the United States have both decreased by substantial amounts in week-over-week comparisons, according to an internal memo from the Federal Emergency Management Agency obtained by ABC News last week.
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