Coronavirus updates: Los Angeles County to prohibit gatherings, close playgrounds

Cases are on the rise in Southern California.

A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now infected more than 61 million people and killed over 1.4 million worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.


0

Maryland sees 19 straight days with over 1,000 new cases

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced his state will launch an education campaign and additional enforcement action this week, as the state sees a surge in COVID-19 cases.

Maryland has seen 19 straight days with over 1,000 new daily cases recorded, Hogan said. The positivity rate is 6.8%, hospitalizations have increased by 80% in the last two weeks, and  29 hospitals are at 90% capacity, according to the governor.

Federal and state officials have announced they will enforce compliance rules over Thanksgiving. A wireless alert will be send out on Wednesday that reminds the public about the pandemic and the state's enforcement.

"Following the public health directives is the only way we will be able to stop this virus, keep Maryland open for business, and keep hospitals from overflowing," Hogan said in a statement.


Buffalo Bills player out for season over COVID-related heart issue

The Buffalo Bills announced that one of their players would be out for the rest of the season due to a heart issue brought on by the coronavirus.

The team tweeted that a cardiologist discovered tight end Tommy Sweeney had myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart, which was connected to COVID-19.

Sweeney was placed on the team's reserve/COVID-19 on Oct. 24.


Feds begin Regeneron shipment to states

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced they have begun to ship the the first batch of Regeneron’s antibody treatment to hospitals across the country.

President Donald Trump was treated with Regeneron when he was hospitalized with the coronavirus in the beginning of October.

The treatment is authorized for use for patients 12 and older with mild to moderate COVID-19 but are at higher risk of getting very sick. Health care providers will decide who gets access to the drug based on need, according to HHS officials.

The federal government provided around 30,000 doses to the hospitals so far and will ship tens of thousands more in the weeks to come, according to officials.

-ABC News' Anne Flaherty


North Carolina strengthens mask mandate after reporting new daily case record

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper announced new statewide measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus, after the state passed 5,000 deaths Monday.

The state recorded 2,419 new cases and 1,601 new hospitalizations Monday, both of which were record numbers, Cooper tweeted.

The governor announced he was bolstering the state's mask mandate, which has been in effect since June, by requiring that all residents wear a face covering anytime they interact with someone outside their household.

"That means wearing a mask at home when you have friends or family over to visit. It means a mask at work, at the gym, at the store, at school," he tweeted.

The order will remain in effect until Dec. 11 at the earliest, according to the governor.


COVID-19 cases in US may be about 8 times higher than reported

The actual number of people infected with the novel coronavirus in the United States reached nearly 53 million at the end of September, according to a model developed by scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The scientists estimated the cumulative incidence of COVID-19 in the U.S. population by taking the laboratory-confirmed case counts that were reported nationally and adjusting them for sources of under-detection based on testing practices in inpatient and outpatient settings. Preliminary estimates using the model found that 2.4 million hospitalizations, 44.8 million symptomatic illnesses and 52.9 million total infections may have occurred through Sept. 30.

"This indicates that approximately 84% of the U.S. population has not yet been infected and thus most of the country remains at risk, despite already high rates of hospitalization," the scientists wrote in a report published in the Nov. 25 issue of the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

There were 6.9 million laboratory-confirmed cases of of domestically-acquired infections that were detected and reported nationally through Sept. 30. Since then, the CDC's tally has increased to nearly 12.5 million. Based on the model's ratio, the true estimated total would now be more than 95 million.