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Coronavirus latest: 'Largest mass fatality incident' in New York City: Report

New York City counted nearly 24,000 confirmed or probable deaths from COVID-19.

ByMorgan Winsor and Emily Shapiro
Last Updated: September 19, 2020, 2:39 PM EDT

A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 948,000 people worldwide.

Over 30.3 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 6.7 million diagnosed cases and at least 198,306 deaths.

California has the most cases of any U.S. state, with more than 776,000 people diagnosed, according to Johns Hopkins data. California is followed by Texas and Florida, with over 701,000 cases and over 677,000 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 developed today. All times Eastern.
Sep 18, 2020, 4:59 AM EDT

India's case count jumps by more than 96,000

India confirmed another 96,424 COVID-19 cases and 1,174 more fatalities in the past 24 hours.

The daily case count is just under the world record that India had set the previous day of 97,894 COVID-19 cases confirmed within a 24-hour reporting period. The country's cumulative total now stands at more than 5.21 million cases with 84,372 deaths, according to the latest data from the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

A health worker wearing personal protective equipment collects a nasal swab sample from a woman for a COVID-19 test at a public health center in Hyderabad, India, on Sept. 17, 2020.
Noah Seelam/AFP via Getty Images

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. However, 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 has reported more than 1 million cases this month alone, which the health ministry has attributed to increased testing. The vast country of 1.3 billion people is conducting more than 1 million COVID-19 tests per day.

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