Coronavirus updates: 23 COVID-19 cases linked to Trump rallies

The outbreaks occurred at Trump campaign rallies in Minnesota last month.

ByMorgan Winsor, Erin Schumaker, and Ivan Pereira
Video byJessie DiMartino
Last Updated: October 27, 2020, 5:32 AM EDT

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

Over 43 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 8.6 million diagnosed cases and at least 225,230 deaths.

California has the most cases of any U.S. state, with more than 906,000 people diagnosed, according to Johns Hopkins data. California is followed by Texas and Florida, with over 892,000 cases and over 778,000 cases, respectively.

Nearly 200 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 26, 2020, 10:08 AM EDT

Pence tests negative after close aides infected

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and his wife both tested negative for COVID-19 again Monday morning, according to a spokesperson.

The negative results come after at least five people within Pence's orbit were found to be infected as of Saturday night.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence makes a fist at the end of a rally in Kinston, North Carolina, on Oct. 25, 2020.
Jonathan Drake/Reuters

Multiple sources familiar with the matter told ABC News that four of Pence's staff members tested positive for COVID-19, including his chief of staff, Marc Short, as well as the vice president's "body man," a position that often represents an individual who is the closest aide to the office holder.

Pence's "body man" and two additional staffers who tested positive have been quarantining since last week, the sources said.

ABC News' Katherine Faulders and John Santucci contributed to this report

Oct 26, 2020, 9:13 AM EDT

Trump's chief of staff admits US is 'not going to control the pandemic'

As COVID-19 infections surge across the nation, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows admitted Sunday that the United States is "not going to control the pandemic."

"We're not going to control the pandemic. We are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigations," Meadows said in an interview on CNN's "State of the Union."

When pressed on why the Trump administration wasn't going to get control of the pandemic, Meadows said: "Because it is a contagious virus."

Oct 26, 2020, 8:15 AM EDT

France may actually have 100,000 new cases per day, government advisor says

France's public health agency said Sunday that it had confirmed another 52,010 cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, the highest daily increase the country has seen since the start of the pandemic.

However, Dr. Jean-Francois Delfraissy, who heads the scientific council that advises the French government on the pandemic, told France's RTL radio on Monday morning that, in reality, the country may have an estimated 100,000 new cases per day due to undiagnosed cases and asymptomatic infections.

A sign displays service hours at a restaurant's terrace in Nice, France, on Oct. 24, 2020, as the city prepares for a new nightly curfew imposed in an effort to combat a second wave of coronavirus pandemic.
Eric Gaillard/Reuters

Delfraissy said that France is in a "very difficult, even critical, situation."

As of Sunday afternoon, France's public health agency had confirmed a total of 1,138,507 cases with 34,761 deaths. More than 12,000 patients remained hospitalized with COVID-19, including at least 1,816 in intensive care.

The European nation has the fifth-highest tally of diagnosed cases, after the United States, India, Brazil and Russia, according to a count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

ABC News' Ibtissem Guenfoud contributed to this report.

Oct 26, 2020, 7:42 AM EDT

World 'should learn from Senegal,' WHO epidemiologist says

As the novel coronavirus spreads rapidly across the United States, a top infectious disease epidemiologist is praising the successful testing and diagnosis strategy of a West African nation.

"We can [and] should learn from Senegal," Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the COVID-19 technical lead at the World Health Organization, wrote on her official Twitter account Sunday.

A woman wears a face mask to protect against the novel coronavirus while sitting outside her house in the Ouakam neighbourhood of Dakar, Senegal, on Oct. 23, 2020.
Zohra Bensemra/Reuters

Van Kerkhove's tweet included a post from the WHO's Regional Office for Africa about the challenges Senegal faced at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and how the country has taken steps to strengthen its testing through digitization, decentralization and fast results. Since the start of pandemic, the nation of 16 million people has reported at least 15,565 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 322 deaths.

In another tweet, Van Kerkhove said the world should also learn from Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, South Korea, Japan, Rwanda, Uruguay, China and Singapore.

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