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Teachers win injunction to prevent in-person learning

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, 10:52 AM EDT

University of Hong Kong reports 1st case of human reinfection

The University of Hong Kong claims it has documented the world's first case of COVID-19 reinfection.

The university made the announcement in a press release Monday, revealing findings from its study of an "apparently young and healthy patient" who had a second episode of COVID-19 infection which was diagnosed more than four months after the first episode. A team of researchers showed that the genome sequence of the virus strain in the first episode of COVID-19 infection is "clearly different" from that of the virus strain found during the second episode of infection, according to the press release.

PHOTO: Hong Kong University is seen in this stock photo.
STOCK PHOTO/Getty Images

 

Last week, the World Health Organization said there were over 75,000 COVID-19 sequences identified and that they would need to see evidence of individuals who were infected by two different sequences in order to prove reinfection.

There are dozens of studies on COVID-19 immunity being conducted around the world. So far, WHO officials say they have learned that people do develop an immune response to the virus, but it's not completely clear yet how strong that response is and for how long it lasts.

"What we understand from the press release is that this 'may' be an example of reinfection," Dr. Maria van Kerkhove, WHO's COVID-19 technical lead and an infectious disease epidemiologist, said at Monday's news briefing in Geneva.

"It's very important we document this and in countries where sequencing can be done that would be very, very helpful," she added. "But we need to not jump to any conclusions, even if this is the first documented case of reinfection."

ABC News' Christine Theodorou and Karson Yiu contributed to this report.

Aug 24, 2020, 9:16 AM EDT

France records highest rise in cases since ending lockdown

France’s national public health agency identified 4,897 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, the country’s highest day-to-day increase in infections since coming out of lockdown.

However, just one coronavirus-related fatality was recorded in the past 24 hours.

PHOTO: People wearing face masks walk on a pedestrian street in Lyon, France, on Aug. 22, 2020, on the first day of mandatory mask wearing in parts of the city center.
People wearing face masks walk on a pedestrian street in Lyon, France, on Aug. 22, 2020, on the first day of mandatory mask wearing in parts of the city center. Masks are obligatory to curb the spread of COVID-19 caused in France in open areas of some cities, as well as on public transport and in enclosed spaces such as shops, banks and government offices.
Philippe Desmazes/AFP via Getty Images

 

Since the start of the pandemic, France has reported 242,899 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 30,513 deaths. The country is among the hardest-hit in Europe.

The positivity rate for COVID-19 tests in France increased from 2.8% on Aug. 18 to 3.6% on Aug. 24, according to the national public health agency.

ABC News' Ibtissem Guenfoud contributed to this report.

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.