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Worldwide coronavirus cases top 30 million

The total number of global cases has doubled since July 22.

ByMorgan Winsor and Emily Shapiro
Last Updated: September 18, 2020, 2:34 PM EDT

A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 942,000 people worldwide.

Over 30 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 6.6 million diagnosed cases and at least 197,397 deaths.

California has the most cases of any U.S. state, with more than 773,000 people diagnosed, according to Johns Hopkins data. California is followed by Texas and Florida, with over 697,000 cases and over 674,000 cases, respectively.

Nearly 170 vaccine candidates for COVID-19 are being tracked by the World Health Organization, at least six of which are in crucial phase three trials.

Latest headlines:

Here's how the news is developing today. All times Eastern.
Sep 17, 2020, 4:27 AM EDT

India records world's highest increase in new cases

India confirmed 97,894 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, marking the highest single-day increase in infections worldwide since the coronavirus pandemic began.

An additional 1,132 coronavirus-related fatalities were also recorded. The country's cumulative total now stands at 5,118,253 cases and 83,198 deaths, according to the latest data from the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

A woman wearing white personal protective equipment reacts as she takes a glimpse of her husband's body, a victim of COVID-19, in Gauhati, India, on Sept. 10, 2020.
Anupam Nath/AP

India has the second-highest tally of COVID-19 cases in the world and the third-highest death toll in the coronavirus pandemic, according to a count kept by Johns Hopkins University. The relatively low death toll in a vast county of 1.3 billion people is raising questions about how it's counting coronavirus fatalities.

India has reported more than 1 million cases this month alone. Based on the current rate of infection, India is expected within weeks to become the pandemic's worst-hit nation, surpassing the United States, where more than 6.6 million people have been diagnosed with COVID-19.

India's health ministry has attributed the surge in infections to increased testing. The country is conducting more than 1 million COVID-19 tests per day.

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