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Coronavirus latest: 94% of COVID deaths in US had underlying conditions, CDC says

The novel coronavirus has infected more than 25 million people worldwide.

ByMorgan Winsor and Emily Shapiro
Last Updated: September 1, 2020, 10:46 AM EDT

A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 847,000 people worldwide.

Over 25.3 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 6 million diagnosed cases and at least 183,399 deaths.

California has the most coronavirus cases in the U.S., with more than 708,000 people diagnosed, according to Johns Hopkins data. California is followed by Texas and Florida, with over 630,000 cases and over 623,000 cases respectively.

Nearly 170 vaccine candidates for COVID-19 are being tracked by the World Health Organization, six of which are in crucial phase three trials.

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Aug 31, 2020, 6:36 AM EDT

94% of COVID-19 deaths in US had underlying conditions, CDC says

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released information showing how many people who died from COVID-19 as of last week had underlying health conditions and contributing causes.

“For 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned,” the CDC stated on its website, alongside the data. “For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or cases per death.”

According to the CDC, some of the most common underlying conditions and contributing causes linked with COVID-19 deaths were influenza and pneumonia; adult respiratory distress syndrome, respiratory failure; hypertensive disease; cardiac arrest; heart failure; sepsis; diabetes; vascular and unspecified dementia; renal failure; and intentional and unintentional injury, poisoning and other adverse events.

Aug 31, 2020, 5:16 AM EDT

Global case count surpasses 25 million

The worldwide number of diagnosed cases of COVID-19 is now at 25,236,271, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

At least 846,574 people around the globe have died from the disease.

The top five countries with the highest national tallies of cases are the United States, Brazil, India, Russia and Peru, respectively.

The United States alone accounts for more than 23% of the world’s diagnosed cases.

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