Coronavirus updates: New cases on the rise in 49 states, territories

Weekly cases and deaths are both up more than 15% over the previous week.

ByMorgan Winsor, Erin Schumaker, and Marc Nathanson
Video byJessie DiMartino
Last Updated: November 9, 2020, 11:32 AM EST

A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 1.2 million people worldwide.

Over 46.5 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 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. The criteria for diagnosis -- through clinical means or a lab test -- has also varied from country to country.

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 nation, with more than 9.2 million diagnosed cases and at least 231,003 deaths.

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 is developing today. All times Eastern.
Nov 02, 2020, 5:06 AM EST

El Paso County gets 4th mobile morgue as death toll rises

The El Paso County Medical Examiner's Office set up a fourth refrigerated mobile morgue as the COVID-19 death toll in the westernmost Texas county surpassed 600, according to a report by El Paso ABC affiliate KVIA.

"My understanding is that we just got our fourth one," El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego told KVIA on Sunday afternoon.

As of early Monday, El Paso county had confirmed a total of 50,114 cases of COVID-19 including at least 602 deaths. There were 943 patients who remained hospitalized with the disease, including 271 in intensive care units.

A nurse exits a tent for COVID-19 patients set up at University Medical Center of El Paso in El Paso, Texas, on Oct. 30, 2020.
Cengiz Yar/Getty Images

The death toll is expected to continue to rise as the number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized in ICUs and on ventilators reached an all-time high over the weekend. Health experts have said that many ventilator patients ultimately don't survive the disease.

The El Paso County judge recently ordered a shutdown of all non-essential services and businesses for two weeks in a bid to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus. The El Paso County Sheriff's Office announced Saturday that it would begin aggressively enforcing Samaniego's shutdown order, which is being challenged in court.

Nov 02, 2020, 4:23 AM EST

US reports more than 81,000 new cases

There were 81,493 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 slightly higher than the day prior but still less than the country's all-time high of 99,321 new cases set on Friday.

An additional 447 fatalities from COVID-19 were also registered nationwide Sunday, almost half the previous day's count and down from a peak of 2,666 new deaths in mid-April.

Technicians conduct COVID-19 tests at a new testing facility in Valencia, California, on Oct. 30, 2020.
Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP

A total of 9,207,364 people in the United States have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and at least 230,996 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 90,000 for the first time on Oct. 30.

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