Coronavirus updates: Birx warns of 'very different' spread of COVID-19

"What we did in the spring is not going to work in the fall," Birx said.

Last Updated: October 9, 2020, 9:59 AM EDT

A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 1 million people worldwide.

Over 36.7 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 7.6 million diagnosed cases and at least 213,570 deaths.

California has the most cases of any U.S. state, with more than 847,000 people diagnosed, according to Johns Hopkins data. California is followed by Texas and Florida, with over 811,000 cases and over 728,000 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.

Latest headlines:

Here's how the news developed today. All times Eastern.
Oct 09, 2020, 9:33 AM EDT

Broadway to remain closed through May 30, 2021

Broadway will stay dark through May 30, 2021, according to the national trade association for the Broadway theatre industry in New York City.

Broadway shows shut down in March when New York City emerged as the U.S. epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic.

A man walks past a closed Broadway theater near Times Square in New York, Oct. 6, 2020.
Justin Lane/EPA via Shutterstock

"With nearly 97,000 workers who rely on Broadway for their livelihood and an annual economic impact of $14.8 billion to the city, our membership is committed to re-opening as soon as conditions permit us to do so," Broadway League president Charlotte St. Martin said in a statement Friday. "We are working tirelessly with multiple partners on sustaining the industry once we raise our curtains."

Dates for returning and new shows will be announced by the individual productions.

Oct 09, 2020, 9:13 AM EDT

80% of ICU beds are full at 25% of US hospitals, HHS memo says

According to an internal memo from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that was obtained by ABC News, 25% of the nation's hospitals are reporting that beds in intensive care units are more than 80% full.

The memo, which is circulated to the highest levels of the federal government and is used to determine daily priorities for the agencies working on COVID-19 response, said 29 U.S. states and territories are in an upward trajectory of infections, while 10 jurisdictions are at a plateau and 17 others are in a downward trend.

There were 314,894 new cases confirmed during the period of Oct. 1-Oct. 7, a 6% increase from the previous week. There were also 4,730 coronavirus-related fatalities recorded during the period of Oct. 1-Oct. 7, a 5.2% decrease compared with the week prior, according to the memo.

Meanwhile, the national positivity rate for COVID-19 tests increased from 4.5% to 5.7% in week-to-week comparisons, the memo said.

A woman walks into the international airport in Honolulu, Hawaii, Oct. 2, 2020.
Caleb Jones/AP

In Arkansas, the seven-day positivity rate for COVID-19 tests jumped from 7.1% to 22.8% -- a 300% increase -- between the weeks ending Sept. 24 and Oct. 1, according to the memo.

Delaware's seven-day COVID-19 case rate rose 41.6% to 1,009.5 cases per 1 million population on Oct. 4 from the previous week -- much higher than the regional rate of 633.5 cases per 1 million. The state's number of new COVID-19 cases, deaths and hospitalizations are all trending upward, the memo said.

In Hawaii, pet shelters are at capacity due to the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic. On Oct. 30, the state will initiate the largest pet airlift across the Pacific Ocean in history, transporting hundreds of animals to Seattle from Kauai, Honolulu, Maui and Hawaii Island, according to the memo.

Idaho's daily average of COVID-19 hospitalizations increased from 7.3 to 8.7 per 100,000 population during the week ending Oct. 4, the memo said.

Indiana has also seen an upward trend in its seven-day COVID-19 hospitalization rate. Meanwhile, the state's number of new COVID-19 cases continues to rise, with the average of new daily cases rising 50% over the peak in April and May, according to the memo.

Multiple counties in Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia, Cambria, Bradford and Columbia -- reported their number of new COVID-19 cases doubling in the week ending Oct. 4

ABC News' Josh Margolin contributed to this report.

Oct 09, 2020, 6:52 AM EDT

Russia sees record number of new cases

Russia confirmed 12,126 new cases of COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, the country’s highest single-day increase since the start of the pandemic.

The previous record was 11,656 new cases set on May 11.

An additional 201 coronavirus-related fatalities were also registered in the last day. The country's cumulative totals now stand at 1,272,238 confirmed cases and 22,257 deaths, according to Russia’s coronavirus response headquarters.

More than 30% of the newly confirmed cases -- 3,701 -- were registered in Moscow, the epicenter of the country's COVID-19 outbreak.

A woman wearing a face mask to protect against the novel coronavirus walks on Red Square in downtown Moscow, Russia, on Sept. 24, 2020.
Yuri Kadobnov/AFP via Getty Images

Russian authorities have said there's no immediate plan to impose a second nationwide lockdown, even as the country's outbreak grows after most coronavirus-related restrictions were lifted over the summer. The country has seen its daily caseload double over the past month, while its capital has had a 53% rise in new infections in the last week, according to a report by The Moscow Times, the only independent English-language news outlet reporting within Russia.

Officials in Moscow, however, have recommended that the elderly self-isolate at home and also encouraged businesses to have at least one-third of their employees work from home. School holidays in the capital this month were extended from one to two weeks.

ABC News' Alina Lobzina contributed to this report.

Oct 09, 2020, 6:13 AM EDT

US reports more than 56,000 new cases

There were 56,191 new cases of COVID-19 identified in the United States on Thursday, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

The latest daily tally is up by nearly 6,000 from the previous day but is still under the country’s record set on July 16, when there were 77,255 new cases in a 24-hour-reporting period.

An additional 961 coronavirus-related fatalities were also recorded Thursday, down from a peak of 2,666 new fatalities reported on April 17.

Health care workers gather a swab sample from a motorist at a drive-through COVID-19 testing center at the M.T.O. Shahmaghsoudi School of Islamic Sufism in Los Angeles, California, on Sept. 29, 2020.
Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images

A total of 7,607,250 people in the United States have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and at least 212,784 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.

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