Coronavirus latest: 5 states removed from New York travel advisory list
The advisory mandates a 14-day self-quarantine for travelers from those states.
A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 814,000 people worldwide.
Over 23.7 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 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 United States has become the worst-affected country, with more than 5.7 million diagnosed cases and at least 177,873 deaths.
Nearly 170 vaccine candidates are being tracked by the World Health Organization. Six of these are in crucial phase three trials, where thousands are being administered vaccine doses.
Latest headlines:
- Florida county has 158 quarantined since schools opened last week
- New York removes 5 states from travel advisory list, adds Guam
- University of Southern California reports ‘alarming increase’ in cases
- People under 60 may be driving pandemic spread in Georgia, study shows
- New cases and deaths in US have decreased substantially, FEMA memo says
Madrid to make masks mandatory in schools for children
Face masks will be obligatory for children aged 6 and older while at schools in Spain's central capital.
Madrid's regional premier, Isabel Diaz Ayuso, announced the new measure at a press conference Tuesday, while presenting a strategy for the safe return to schools amid the coronavirus pandemic. She said class sizes will also be reduced and thousands more teachers will be hired on a temporary basis.
Diaz Ayuso noted that, if Madrid's epidemiological situation improves, face masks will only be mandatory for students aged 11 and up. The region is planning for the staggered reopening of schools in September.
With over 405,000 diagnosed cases of COVID-19 so far, Spain has the highest case count of any country in Europe. The day-to-day increase of new cases has been steadily climbing since Spain emerged from a more than three-month national lockdown in late June.
Last week, Spain's head of health emergencies, Dr. Fernando Simon, warned that "things are not going well" regarding a recent spike of infections.
"Each day, we are seeing more and more transmission," Simon said.
South Korea closes schools across Seoul amid spike in cases
South Korea has ordered the closure of schools in the capital amid a rise in coronavirus infections there.
South Korean Education Minister Yoo Eun-hae said Tuesday that nearly 200 students and teachers have been infected in the Seoul metropolitan region over the past two weeks. Most students at kindergartens, elementary, middle and high schools will return to online learning at least until Sept. 11. Those in their final year of high school will continue to take in-person classes so their studies are not disrupted ahead of the national college exams, Yoo said.
South Korea's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded 280 new cases of COVID-19 and one death on Monday, bringing the country's total to 17,945 cases and 310 deaths.
South Korea once had the largest COVID-19 outbreak outside China, where the virus first emerged, but health authorities were able to bring it under control with an extensive "trace, test and treat" strategy. Now, infections are on the rise in Seoul, home to over 25 million people, as well as in other parts of the country.
Germany issues travel warning for Paris area
Germany has issued a travel warning for parts of France, including Paris and Marseille, due to high levels of coronavirus infection there.
The German government announced Monday that travelers returning from Ile-de-France and Provence-Alpes-Cote-d’Azur regions will be required to be tested for COVID-19 upon arrival and then must self-quarantine while awaiting the test results.
France’s national public health agency recorded 1,955 new cases of COVID-19 and 15 coronavirus-related fatalities on Monday, bringing the total to 244,854 confirmed cases and 30,528 deaths. The country is among the hardest-hit in Europe.
ABC News’ Ibtissem Guenfoud contributed to this report.
People under 60 may be driving pandemic spread in Georgia, study shows
People younger than 60 are potentially driving the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in Georgia, according to a new study.
The study by the National Academy of Science collected data from five counties in Georgia, including four metro Atlanta areas, between March and May. An analysis of the data showed that people under the age of 60 were almost three times as likely to spread COVID-19 as people older than 60.
Researchers also found that people younger than 60 tended to be responsible for super-spreading events. Overall, 2% of cases were directly responsible for 20% of all infections, according to the study, which was published last Thursday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the official journal of the National Academy of Sciences.
ABC News' Sony Salzman contributed to this report.