Coronavirus updates: Johnson & Johnson pauses vaccine trial

The company is currently in Phase 3 of its trial.

ByMorgan Winsor, Erin Schumaker, and Ivan Pereira
Video byJessie DiMartino
Last Updated: October 13, 2020, 6:07 AM EDT

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

Over 37.6 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 7.7 million diagnosed cases and at least 214,771 deaths.

California has the most cases of any U.S. state, with more than 855,000 people diagnosed, according to Johns Hopkins data. California is followed by Texas and Florida, with over 818,000 cases and over 736,000 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 is developing today. All times Eastern.
Oct 12, 2020, 6:56 AM EDT

Russia registers over 13,000 new cases for 2nd straight day

Russia confirmed 13,592 new cases of COVID-19 and 125 deaths over the past 24 hours.

It's the second straight day that Russia has tallied over 13,000 new cases. The country's record of 13,634 new cases was set the previous day.

The national tally now stands at 1,312,310 confirmed cases with 22,727 deaths, according to Russia’s coronavirus response headquarters.

PHOTO: Police officers wearing face masks to protect against the novel coroanvirus walk past a photo of Kremlin's Spasskaya Tower (left) and St. Basil's Cathedral at Sheremetyevo airport, outside Moscow, Russia, on Oct. 9, 2020.
Police officers wearing face masks to protect against the novel coroanvirus walk past a photo of Kremlin's Spasskaya Tower (left) and St. Basil's Cathedral at Sheremetyevo Alexander S. Pushkin International Airport, outside Moscow, Russia, on Oct. 9, 2020.
Pavel Golovkin/AP

More than 32% of the newly confirmed cases -- 4,395 -- and 27% of the newly reported deaths -- 34 -- were registered in Moscow, the epicenter of the country's COVID-19 outbreak. Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said this week will be "largely decisive" in the fight against the city's outbreak.

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.

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 12, 2020, 6:16 AM EDT

India becomes 2nd country in the world to surpass 7 million cases

India confirmed another 66,732 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, driving the country's tally to more than 7.1 million.

An additional 816 coronavirus-related fatalities were also recorded. The country's cumulative totals now stand at 7,120,538 confirmed cases and 109,150 deaths, according to the latest data from the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

A health worker wearing personal protective equipment waits to collect swab samples from residents during a COVID-19 screening at a civic clinic in Dharavi slums in Mumbai, India, on Oct. 12, 2020.
Indranil Mukherjee/AFP via Getty Images

India is only the second country in the world to surpass 7 million total cases, after the United States. The spread of the virus in India appears to have slowed down since mid-September, when the country registered a record 97,894 new cases in a single day. So far this month, India is averaging more than 70,000 cases per day.

India is still on track to become the pandemic's worst-hit nation within weeks, overtaking the United States, where more than 7.7 million people have been diagnosed with COVID-19.

Oct 12, 2020, 5:36 AM EDT

China to test entire city of 9 million amid outbreak linked to hospital

All 9 million residents of the Chinese city of Qingdao will be tested for COVID-19 this week amid an outbreak linked to a hospital.

The Qingdao Municipal Health Commission made the announcement in a statement Monday, saying the entire city would be tested within five days and the results would be released immediately. The move comes after nine new cases of COVID-19 were recorded in Qingdao, of which eight are patients at the city's Municipal Chest Hospital and one is a family member. Four of the cases were asymptomatic, which China does not count as confirmed cases.

A health worker takes a swab from a resident to be tested for COVID-19 in the city of Qingdao in China's eastern Shandong province on Oct. 12, 2020.
AFP via Getty Images

The Qingdao Municipal Health Commission said the specific source of infection remains under investigation.

As of Monday, 114,862 people -- including medical staff and newly hospitalized patients -- had tested negative for COVID-19 in Qingdao, according to the city's health commission.

China's National Health Commission has so far reported 85,578 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 4,634 deaths on the Chinese mainland, where the coronavirus pandemic began last December.

Oct 12, 2020, 5:05 AM EDT

US reports more than 44,000 new cases

There were 44,614 new cases of COVID-19 identified in the United States on Sunday, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

The latest daily tally is down by more than 10,000 from the previous day and falls well under the country’s record set on July 16, when there were 77,255 new cases in a 24-hour-reporting period.

An additional 400 coronavirus-related fatalities were also recorded Sunday, down from a peak of 2,666 new fatalities reported on April 17.

A banner offering free COVID-19 testing is seen at a testing station at Black Lives Matter Plaza near the White House in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 9, 2020.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

A total of 7,762,809 people in the United States have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and at least 214,771 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.

Week-over-week comparisons show the number of new cases reported across the nation continues to go up, as does the usage of intensive care units, but the number of new deaths are down, according to an internal memo from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that was obtained by ABC News last week.

Related Topics