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Coronavirus updates: Trump says 'not much' he'd change about COVID response

Thirty-one states are considered in the red zone for new cases in the last week.

ByMorgan Winsor, Emily Shapiro, and Ivan Pereira
Video byJessie DiMartino
Last Updated: October 21, 2020, 8:09 AM EDT

A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 1.1 million people worldwide.

Over 40.7 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 8.2 million diagnosed cases and at least 220,955 deaths.

California has the most cases of any U.S. state, with more than 883,000 people diagnosed, according to Johns Hopkins data. California is followed by Texas and Florida, with over 862,000 cases and over 760,000 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 20, 2020, 11:18 AM EDT

Heathrow Airport now offering rapid tests to some passengers

London's Heathrow Airport announced Tuesday that it will now offer a rapid COVID-19 test service for passengers flying to Hong Kong, as a growing list of countries and territories around the world require travelers from the United Kingdom and other "high-risk" places to provide evidence of a negative test result prior to their departure.

PHOTO: People are seen in a doorway at the departure area of the new "Terminal 2: The Queen's Terminal" during a media event in Heathrow Airport in west London, United Kingdom, on April 23, 2014.
Toby Melville/Reuters

The new pre-departure diagnostic tests, a U.K. first, cost 80 pounds (about $104) and aim to provide departing passengers at Heathrow with their results in around 60 minutes. These tests, which include LAMP and Antigen tests, can be processed quickly and without being sent to a laboratory, but aren't as sensitive or reliable as RT-PCR tests.

"Ultimately, we need a common international standard for pre-departure testing, and we welcome the U.K. government's recent announcement that it wants to take a global lead in establishing this," Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye said in a statement Tuesday.

Oct 20, 2020, 10:34 AM EDT

India reports lowest daily case count in 3 months

India confirmed another 46,790 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, its lowest daily tally in three months.

An additional 587 deaths from the disease were also registered. The country's cumulative totals now stand at 7,597,063 confirmed cases and 115,197 deaths, according to the latest data from the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

PHOTO: Motorcyclists ride on their motobikes during a "Fight COVID-19 Awareness Building Motorcycle Rally" in Amritsar, northwestern India, on Oct. 20, 2020.
Motorcyclists ride on their motobikes during a "Fight COVID-19 Awareness Building Motorcycle Rally" to raise awareness about the use of wearing face masks and social distancing norms against the spread of the novel coronavirus, in Amritsar, northwestern India, on Oct. 20, 2020.
Narinder Nanu/AFP via Getty Images

India is only the second country in the world to surpass 7 million total cases, after the United States.

The vast country of nearly 1.4 billion people was on track to become the pandemic's worst-hit nation within weeks and overtake the United States, where more than 8.2 million people have been diagnosed with COVID-19. But since hitting a peak of 97,894 new cases registered in a single day in September, India's average number of daily cases has steadily declined.

Oct 20, 2020, 10:05 AM EDT

Pakistan sees 140% increase in COVID-19 deaths

The head of Pakistan's COVID-19 response, Asad Umar, said Tuesday that the country has seen a 140% increase in deaths from the disease in recent weeks due to people "recklessly ignoring" the social distancing rules.

"If we do not change our current path we will lose both lives and livelihoods," Umar, who also serves as Pakistan's planning and development minister, warned in a post on his official Twitter account.

Policemen wearing face masks stand guard in front of a cordoned off area after some residents tested positive for COVID-19 in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Oct. 11, 2020.
Farooq Naeem/AFP via Getty Images

Umar's warning comes after the National Command and Operations Center registered 618 new cases and 14 deaths in the past 24 hours, a significant jump from the previous day.

Pakistan's cumulative total now stands at 324,077 cases with 6,673 deaths.

Oct 20, 2020, 9:40 AM EDT

Russia reports over 16,000 new cases for 1st time

Russia confirmed another 16,319 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, its highest single-day tally yet.

It's the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic that Russia's daily case count has exceeded 16,000.

More than 30% of the newly confirmed cases -- 4,999 -- were reported in the capital, Moscow, according to Russia's coronavirus response headquarters.

An additional 269 deaths from COVID-19 were also registered nationwide in the past 24 hours, just under last week's peak of 286. The cumulative totals now stand at 1,431,635 cases and 24,635 deaths, according to Russia's coronavirus response headquarters, which noted that the current growth rate in infections is 1.2%

Fourth-grade students attend a physical education class at school in Moscow, Russia, on Oct. 20, 2020, amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Pavel Golovkin/AP

Although Russia has been breaking its own records for daily case counts and deaths almost every day since Oct. 9, authorities there are resisting shutting down businesses again. Few measures have been imposed in Moscow, the epicenter of the country's COVID-19 outbreak and recent surge.

The Eastern European country of 145 million people has the fourth-highest tally of COVID-19 cases in the world, behind only the United States, India and Brazil, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

ABC News' Alina Lobzina contributed to this report.

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