Ovidiu Dugulan/iStockBy MORGAN WINSOR, ABC News
(NEW YORK) — A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 549,000 people worldwide.
Over 12 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 actual numbers are believed to be much higher due to testing shortages, many unreported cases and suspicions that some governments are hiding the scope of their nations’ outbreaks.
Since the first cases were detected in China in December, the United States has become the worst-affected country, with more than three million diagnosed cases and at least 132,309 deaths.
Here is how the news is developing Thursday. All times Eastern:
5:52 a.m.: 3-year-old girl battles COVID-19 after 35-year-old mother dies from virus
A toddler in Florida has tested positive for COVID-19 after her mother died from the disease, according to a report by Miami ABC affiliate WPLG-TV.
Shaquana Miller Garrett, 35, contracted the novel coronavirus while working at the front desk of a hospital in Fort Lauderdale. She was a diabetic, considered a higher risk of becoming severely ill with the virus, and had to be hospitalized within days of her diagnosis, her family told WPLG.
Garrett died on July 2, leaving behind a husband and two young children. So far this month, more than a dozen people under the age of 60 have died from COVID-19 in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, according to WPLG.
“She was my best friend,” her brother, Curtis Miller, told WPLG.
Now, her 3-year-old daughter Kennedy is battling the virus. The little girl has developed a fever, according to Miller.
3:27 a.m.: US records over 58,000 new cases
More than 58,000 new cases of COVID-19 were identified in the United States on Wednesday, bringing the national total soaring past three million, according to a count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
The latest daily caseload is just under the country’s record set on Tuesday, when more than 60,000 new cases were identified in a 24-hour reporting period.
A total of 3,055,081 people in the United States have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and at least 132,309 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 cases then hovered around 20,000 for a couple of weeks before shooting back up and crossing 60,000 for the first time Tuesday.
Many states have seen a rise in infections in recent weeks, with some — including Arizona, California and Florida — reporting daily records.
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