Coronavirus updates: 'Close contact' definition updated by CDC
The CDC offered new, more strict guidance on Wednesday.
A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 1.1 million people worldwide.
Over 41.1 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 8.3 million diagnosed cases and at least 221,987 deaths.
California has the most cases of any U.S. state, with more than 886,000 people diagnosed, according to Johns Hopkins data. California is followed by Texas and Florida, with over 868,000 cases and over 760,000 cases, respectively.
Nearly 200 vaccine candidates for COVID-19 are being tracked by the World Health Organization, at least 10 of which are in crucial phase three studies. Of those 10 potential vaccines in late-stage trials, there are currently five that will be available in the United States if approved.
Latest headlines:
- New CDC study finds multiple, brief exposures within 6 feet can heighten risk of transmission
- New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy self-isolating after close contact with someone who tested positive
- US surgeon general says herd immunity could 'lead to many complications/deaths'
- Analysis shows rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations in 42 US states
- US reports over 60,000 new cases, nearly 1,000 deaths
Czech Republic reports nearly 12,000 new cases in record high
The Czech Republic confirmed 11,984 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, a new record for the Central European country.
The Czech Republic has shattered its own record already several times this month. The country's previous record of 11,105 new cases was set last Friday.
The cumulative total now stands at 193,946 cases, about one third of which were registered in the past seven days, according to data from the Czech health ministry.
More than 113,000 cases were active, including 4,064 patients who remained hospitalized for COVID-19, while over 79,000 have recovered from the disease, according to the health ministry data.
So far, 1,619 people have died from the disease in the Czech Republic. The country's highest single-day death toll of 97 was recorded on Monday, according to the health ministry data.
The Czech Republic has the highest rate of COVID-19 infection in Europe. Over the past two weeks, the country of 10.7 million people has reported 975.8 cases per 100,000 population, according to data published Wednesday by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.
New restrictive measures, including mandatory mask-wearing outdoors and in cars, are slated to take force across the Czech Republic on Wednesday. The government was expected to meet early Wednesday to discuss additional measures.
Analysis shows rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations in 42 US states
An ABC News analysis of COVID-19 trends across all 50 U.S. states as well as Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico found there were increases in hospitalizations over the past two weeks in 42 states.
The analysis also found increases in newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 in 40 states plus Puerto Rico, increases in the daily positivity rate of COVID-19 tests in 27 states and increases in daily COVID-19 death tolls in 17 states.
Since Oct. 1, there have been 972,902 cases reported nationwide. More than 400,000 of those cases have been reported in just the last seven days. The country is on track this week to exceed 1 million cases for the month of October, making it the fourth month on record to surpass the grim milestone.
Cases are undoubtably surging nationally. The United States is currently averaging 57,000 new cases a day -- the highest it has been in 11 weeks. That average has increased by 67% since Sept. 12.
Two states -- Kansas and Tennessee -- hit a record number of new cases reported in a 24-hour reporting period, while five states -- Kentucky, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio and Wyoming -- saw a record number of current hospitalizations in a day.
The trends were all analyzed from data collected and published by the COVID Tracking Project over the past two weeks, using the linear regression trend line of the seven-day moving average to examine whether a state's key indicators were increasing, decreasing or remained flat.
ABC News' Benjamin Bell, Brian Hartman, Soorin Kim and Arielle Mitropolous contributed to this report.
US reports over 60,000 new cases, nearly 1,000 deaths
There were 60,315 new cases of COVID-19 identified in the United States on Tuesday, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
The latest daily tally is up by almost 2,000 from the previous day but remains under the country’s record set on July 16, when there were 77,255 new cases in a 24-hour-reporting period.
An additional 993 coronavirus-related fatalities were also recorded Tuesday, more than double the previous day's death toll but still down from a peak of 2,666 new fatalities reported on April 17.
A total of 8,274,797 people in the United States have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and at least 220,133 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. The daily tally of new cases has gradually come down since then but has started to climb again in recent weeks.
The number of new COVID-19 cases recorded in the United States increased by more than 12% in week-over-week comparisons, according to an internal memo from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that was obtained by ABC News on Tuesday night.
COVID-19 cases among US children surge 13%, new report says
The number of children diagnosed with COVID-19 across the United States increased by 13% in the first two weeks of October, according to a new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.
There were 84,319 pediatric cases of COVID-19 reported nationwide from Oct. 1 to Oct. 15. The overall rate of infection is 986 cases per 100,000 children in the population, according to the weekly report, which was published Tuesday.
"While children represented only 10.9% of all cases in states reporting cases by age, over 741,000 children have tested positive for COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic," the report said.
Even so, the report noted that severe illness and deaths due to COVID-19 appear to be rare among children at this time. As of Oct. 15, children accounted for 1%-3.6% of total reported hospitalizations and 0%-0.27% of all COVID-19 deaths in the United States. Fourteen states reported zero pediatric deaths from the disease, according to the report.
"However, states should continue to provide detailed reports on COVID-19 cases, testing, hospitalizations, and mortality by age and race/ethnicity so that the effects of COVID-19 on children’s health can be documented and monitored," the report said.
Boston University to require students to display 'green badge' in order to enter campus public spaces
Boston University announced that beginning Thursday, it will require all students to display a green "daily attestation badge" before entering community spaces across campus to prove that they are up-to-date on testing requirements.
"To emphasize the importance of these rules, beginning on Thursday, October 22, 2020, we will require a green daily attestation badge in order to enter our dining halls ... and several other public spaces on our campus," Kenneth Elmore, associate provost and dean of students, said in a letter to students. "We hope this will be a reminder to everyone of the importance of daily symptom attestation and testing for keeping our campus safe."
The university had already been using badges that appear on students' mobile devices for faculty and administrators to check students' compliance with the university's COVID-19 guidelines.
The announcement comes after a "very worrisome increase" in the university's daily COVID-19 case numbers. Over the last seven days, the university has reported its largest increase of new cases since students moved into campus in August.
The move also comes as new cases surge in the Northeast and colleges especially have been struggling to control the spread of the virus.
ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos contributed to this report.