Coronavirus updates: Fauci sets record straight on masks after debate
Fauci said his stance on masks were "taken out of context."
A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 1 million people worldwide.
Over 33.8 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 7.2 million diagnosed cases and at least 206,905 deaths.
California has the most cases of any U.S. state, with more than 819,000 people diagnosed, according to Johns Hopkins data. California is followed by Texas and Florida, with over 770,000 cases and over 706,000 cases, respectively.
Nearly 190 vaccine candidates for COVID-19 are being tracked by the World Health Organization, at least nine of which are in crucial phase three trials.
Latest headlines:
Kentucky on pace for record week of coronavirus cases
On Tuesday, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear reported 1,018 new cases -- the state's second highest single-day increase since March 6.
“It ought to be a wake-up call,” Beshear said. “What that means is we are on pace to have even more cases than last week where we set a record number of cases.”
Kentucky is one of 22 states currently considered in the "red zone" for cases according to the latest White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing obtained by ABC News.
The official rate of positive tests, a seven-day average, remains below 5 percent, at 4.24 percent. In addition to the second-highest number of daily cases, Kentucky reported 72,808 new tests on Tuesday, the second-highest amount announced in a single day since the start of the pandemic. A total of 1,446,385 tests have been administered since early March.
New York continues to see rise in COVID-19 cases among Orthodox Jewish communities
Gov. Andrew Cuomo told reporters during a conference call that he has been working with Orthodox Jewish leaders to address the rise in coronavirus cases in 20 zip codes, including ones in Brooklyn and Queens.
The New York City Health Department said Wednesday evening that there are 10 neighborhoods, including Borough Park and Williamsburg in Brooklyn, where new COVID-19 cases are outpacing the citywide average by 3.7 times over the past 14 days.
Borough Park in particular had a 14-day positivity rate of 6.51%.
Cuomo said the top three rationales from the leaders were that they falsely believed in herd immunity, felt that local governments were not doing their part with enforcement and believed they didn't need to wear a face mask because President Donald Trump said so.
"I explained the situation frankly and candidly, and we had a good exchange," Cuomo said. "I think it's fair to say the leaders of the community understand, and they're going to take action. And we're going to come up with an action plan."
Mayor Bill de Blasio and other city leaders said they've increased their outreach efforts over the last few days to the affected communities. They have been handing out face masks and shutting down business that have violated the city's the health advisories.
"The more we are seeing people pick up on that and wear a mask, and that's going to be part of how we turn the situation around," de Blasio said during his daily news conference.
ABC News' J. Gabriel Ware contributed to this report.