Coronavirus news: US records highest daily death toll in weeks
The death toll is a threefold increase from the previous day,
A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 938,000 people worldwide.
Over 29.7 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 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 6.6 million diagnosed cases and at least 196,691 deaths.
California has the most cases of any U.S. state, with more than 770,000 people diagnosed, according to Johns Hopkins data. California is followed by Texas and Florida, with over 695,000 cases and over 671,000 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.
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US unveils plan to offer free vaccine to all Americans
The U.S. government has unveiled a plan to offer a COVID-19 vaccine to all Americans free of charge as early as January.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Defense jointly released two documents on Wednesday, outlining the Trump administration’s vaccine distribution strategy amid the coronavirus pandemic. The goal is to deliver safe and effective vaccine doses to sites, with "no upfront costs to providers and no out-of-pocket cost to the vaccine recipient," according to a strategic distribution overview.
"No American has to pay a single dime out of pocket for a vaccine," Paul Mango, deputy chief of staff for policy at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said on a call with reporters Wednesday.
Health care providers will be reimbursed for the cost of administering the vaccine doses, but those fees will not be borne by patients and instead will be paid for by either commercial insurers or Medicaid. For patients who are uninsured, the costs will be covered by the administration's Provider Relief Fund.
Officials are still ironing out details for those insured through Medicare fee-for-service programs. The most they would have to pay out of pocket would be $3.50 per shot, "but we're working on that," Mango said.
Mango noted that some details of the plan won't be known until a COVID-19 vaccine is authorized or approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
“We’re dealing in a world of great uncertainty," he told reporters. "So this is a really quite extraordinary, logistically complex undertaking and a lot of uncertainties right now."
ABC News' Sony Salzman contributed to this report.
Infection rate drops below 1% in New York state
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday that the COVID-19 infection rate across the Empire State has dropped below 1% again.
New York was once the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak in the United States. Although the state's infection rate now stands at 0.87%, the governor cautioned that "this thing is not over."
"Our numbers continue to remain low, thanks to the hard work of New Yorkers, who rose to the occasion and ultimately flattened the curve," Cuomo said in a statement Wednesday. "We have been calibrating our reopening based on real-time data, and we will continue to make decisions based on science and facts, because this thing is not over. Having our infection rate come back down to 0.87 is great news for us -- we don't want to see our infection rate go over one percent for any period of time. There is no margin for error: It's going to take all of us to keep wearing our masks, washing our hands and remaining socially distant."
Russia sees highest surge in cases since July
Russia confirmed 5,670 new cases of COVID-19 over the last 24 hours, the country's highest single-day increase since July 26.
An additional 132 coronavirus-related deaths were also recorded in the past day, according to Russia's coronavirus response headquarters.
Russia's cumulative total now stands at 1,079,519 confirmed cases and 18,917 deaths.
Meanwhile, the Russian Ministry of Finance has proposed hiking taxes on cigarettes to make up for higher budget spending due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Kommersant newspaper reported Wednesday.
ABC News' Alina Lobzina contributed to this report.
No snow days for New York City public schools this year
Public schools in New York City won't take any snow days during the upcoming academic calendar year, amid concerns about meeting the state's 180-day instruction requirement.
If there is a need for a snow day this winter due to inclement weather, in-person classes will be cancelled that day and everyone will learn remotely. Almost all of the city's 1.1 million schoolchildren will already be doing some sort of remote learning during the 2020-2021 school year.
Normally, the New York City Department of Education builds at least one snow day into the academic calendar.
“As we reopen schools for this critical school year we are utilizing all of the lessons learned from remote schooling this spring to maximize our students’ instructional time. This includes providing remote instruction during both Election Day and snow days," the department said in a statement Wednesday.
Earlier this month, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that students will not start the new school year Sept. 10 as planned, to allow for additional preparation. Instruction begins remotely for all students Sept. 16, and they can return to physical classroom from Sept. 21 for a blended learning approach, which involves a mix of in-person and remote classes.
ABC News' Aaron Katersky contributed to this report.