Coronavirus updates: 23-year-old college student dies from COVID-19

With the pandemic intensifying in Los Angeles County, another stay-at-home order is possible in "the near future," said Christina Ghaly, the county's health department director, "if we can't get the numbers down."

"Earlier on in the pandemic, we were seeing the cases among people who had known risk factors: they were in congregate living facilities, skilled nursing facilities, they had a clear exposure in their workplace," she told "GMA3: What You Need To Know." "Now, the transmission is just simply much more widespread. And it seems to be due to the fact that people are mingling with others outside of their household, maybe are letting their guard down with their mask or not wearing the mask, and just not always following those basic public health practices."

With Thanksgiving one week away, Ghaly warned, "A test can't be used as a free pass for getting into a social gathering with people outside of your household."

"The test result is really only accurate on the day you took the test," she explained. "When it comes back a day later, you could have turned to be positive that day, or certainly the day after that or the day after that. So while the test is helpful and very critical part of helping us to curb the transmission of COVID when combined with other measures, by itself, it doesn't necessarily do anything. So I would encourage people, please don't use a test to go out with your friends on the weekend or to engage and intermingle with people that are outside of your household. "

The University of Maryland's head football coach, Michael Locksley, has tested positive for COVID-19, Maryland's athletics department announced.

This Saturday's game against Michigan State has been canceled and won't be rescheduled. 

Locksley, who tested positive Wednesday and is isolating at home, said in a statement, "I am feeling strong, with only minor symptoms."

"I will continue to lead this program virtually and our game preparations for Indiana [set for Nov. 28] will begin immediately," he said. "This virus is testing our players and coaches right now, but I have no doubt that we will emerge as a stronger unit for having gone through this together."

With over 11.5 million cases and more than 250,000 deaths in the U.S., the "flu doesn't even come close," Dr. Anthony Fauci told the USA Today editorial board.

Fauci said his "frustration" with those not taking the pandemic seriously "borders on pain."

"Either people don't want to look at the data or they look at the data and they say it's fake. No, it isn't fake," Fauci said. "This is a global issue. I tell the people who deny or think that this is nothing, do you mean that every single country in Europe is doing the same thing, is making things up? They're not."

"Get rid of these ridiculous conspiracy theories and realize this is a public health crisis," Fauci said. We don't want to shut down as a nation because of the psychological and economic consequences of that. But we at least have got to be consistent in doing some fundamental things, so that's what concerns me. We're in a vulnerable position."

ABC News' Brian Hartman contributed to this report.

The total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Africa has surpassed 2 million.

As of Thursday morning, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed 2,013,388 cases since the start of the pandemic, including 48,408 deaths. South Africa currently accounts for more than 37% of confirmed cases on the 54-nation continent and over 42% of the deaths.

The true number of COVID-19 infections across Africa is feared to be much higher, as testing and health care access remains a challenge in many areas. Nevertheless, the continent of 1.3 billion people has fared better than other regions amid the pandemic, possibly due swift actions taken early to curb transmission as well as decades of experience with emerging infectious diseases.

According to a weekly epidemiological report released Tuesday by the World Health Organization, the African region saw a 22% increase in new cases over the past seven days compared to the previous week, while death rates remained similar. South Africa, Kenya, Algeria and Ethiopia reported the largest number of new weekly cases in the region.