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A judge halted an executive order requiring schools to be open five days a week.

ByMorgan Winsor and Matt Zarrell
Last Updated: August 25, 2020, 12:35 PM EDT

The global coronavirus pandemic has now killed more than 806,000 people worldwide, nearly a quarter of those in the U.S.

More 23.2 million people worldwide 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, unreported cases and suspicions that some national governments are hiding or downplaying the scope of their outbreaks.

The United States is the worst-affected country, with more than 5.6 million diagnosed cases and at least 176,659 deaths.

Today's developments:

Here's how the news developed today. All times Eastern.
Aug 24, 2020, 8:33 AM EDT

US reports under 1,000 new deaths for 1st time in almost a week

There were 34,567 new cases of COVID-19 identified in the United States on Sunday, according to a count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

It’s the first time in six days that the country’s day-to-day rise in cases is under 40,000. Sunday’s tally is also well below the national record set on July 16, when 77,255 new cases were identified in a 24-hour reporting period.

An additional 449 coronavirus-related deaths were also recorded Sunday, the first time in a six days that the daily death toll was lower than 1,000. The figure is also under the record 2,666 new deaths that were reported on April 17.

A man wearing a face mask rides his bike towing a dog as a discarded face mask lies along the bike path in Long Beach, California, on Aug. 22, 2020.
Apu Gomes/AFP via Getty Images

 

A total of 5,704,447 people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and at least 176,809 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.

Week-over-week comparisons show that the nationwide number of new cases and new deaths has continued to decrease in recent weeks, according to an internal memo from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, obtained by ABC News on Friday night.