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US reports over 34K new cases as hotspots reemerge in Northeast

Some areas in the Northeast are starting to reemerge as hotspots.

ByMorgan Winsor and Emily Shapiro
Last Updated: September 16, 2020, 5:16 AM EDT

A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 930,000 people worldwide.

Over 29.3 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 6.5 million diagnosed cases and at least 195,414 deaths.

California has the most cases of any U.S. state, with more than 766,000 people diagnosed, according to Johns Hopkins data. California is followed by Texas and Florida, with over 686,000 cases and over 668,000 cases, respectively.

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

Latest headlines:

Here's how the news developed Tuesday.
Sep 15, 2020, 5:17 AM EDT

US reports over 34,000 new cases as hotspots reemerge in Northeast

There were 34,079 new cases of COVID-19 identified in the United States on Monday, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

Monday’s tally is well below the country’s record set on July 16, when there were 77,255 new cases in a 24-hour-reporting period.

An additional 422 coronavirus-related fatalities were also recorded Monday, down from a peak of 2,666 new fatalities reported on April 17.

Jaheem Williams works on his laptop, with classmates spaced out behind him, during an oral communication class in a lecture hall in the Martin Luther King Jr. Communication Arts Center at Bowie State University in Bowie, Maryland, on Sept. 9, 2020.
Brian Krista/The Baltimore Sun via AP

A total of 6,554,821 people in the United States have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and at least 194,536 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.

An internal memo from the Federal Emergency Management Agency obtained by ABC News on Monday night showed some areas in the northeastern United States are beginning to reemerge as COVID-19 hotspots, including New Jersey's Middlesex and Somerset Counties, Maryland's Wicomico County and Maine's York County.

ABC News' Josh Margolin contributed to this report.

Sep 15, 2020, 4:51 AM EDT

WHO reports record rise in global infections

The World Health Organization has reported the highest single-day increase in COVID-19 infections worldwide since the pandemic began.

The WHO received reports of 308,010 newly confirmed cases across the globe on Sunday. The previous record was set on Sept. 6 when 306,852 new cases were reported, according to real-time count kept by the WHO.

A Palestinian man walks past a coronavirus awareness mural in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on Sept. 14, 2020.
Mohammed Abed/AFP via Getty Images

The cumulative total in global cases surpassed 29 million on Monday.

The WHO also received reports of 5,536 coronavirus-related fatalities on Sunday, down from a peak of 12,430 deaths recorded on April 17.

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