Coronavirus updates: Over 7,000 Americans died in past week
The increase comes less than two weeks after Halloween.
A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 1.3 million people worldwide.
Over 53.2 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. The criteria for diagnosis -- through clinical means or a lab test -- has also varied from country to country.
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 nation, with more than 10.7 million diagnosed cases and at least 244,283 deaths.
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:
- National test-positivity rate above 10%: HHS
- Emergency Nurses Association asks Biden to include nurses in COVID task force
- Cases reach another high amid record growth
- Disneyland to remain closed at least through end of year
- Corey Lewandowski tests positive
- Fauci tells Americans to 'hang in there,' 'help is really on the way'
Fauci says 'I will take the vaccine'
Now that Pfizer Inc. said Monday that its vaccine may be 90% effective, Dr. Anthony Fauci says it's possible that "by the time we get into December, we'll be able to have doses available for people ... at the highest priority to get it first."
"Hopefully, since this is such an effective vaccine, or efficacious at least in the trial, that after a reasonable period of time, we will get vaccine to everyone who wants and needs it and hopefully that will be the overwhelming majority of the country," Fauci told MSNBC Tuesday. "The vaccine is a very, very important tool in ending this pandemic both domestically and internationally.”
Fauci added that he will take the vaccine and he'll "recommend that my family take the vaccine.”
ABC News' Sophie Tatum contributed to this report
Every state is reporting an increasing number of new cases
Every state in the country is reporting an increasing number of new COVID-19 cases, according to the COVID Tracking Project
In Washington, D.C., and five states -- California, Hawaii, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont -- cases are low, but increasing.
In the remaining 45 states as well as Guam, and Puerto Rico, cases are high and staying high.
ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos, Soorin Kim, Brian Hartman and Ben Bell contributed to this report
Paris prosecutor opens judicial inquiries into COVID-19 response complaints
The Paris prosecutor's office has opened four judicial inquiries in response to complaints related to how French authorities have handled the coronavirus pandemic.
Remy Heitz, the chief public prosecutor in the French capital, said in a statement Tuesday that the judicial inquiries bring together 253 complaints against decision-makers and national public structures from the general population, health workers, civil servants as well as sick or dead people that were addressed to the Paris prosecutor's office since March 24.
The investigations will enable the prosecutor's office to carry out complex investigations intended to bring to light any criminal offenses on counts of voluntary abstention from fighting a disaster, endangering the lives of others and unintentional homicides and injuries.
France, along with much of Europe, is in the grip of a second wave of COVID-19 infections. Paris and its suburbs have been particularly hard-hit.
ABC News' Ibtissem Guenfoud contributed to this report.
Denmark abandons plan for mass mink cull
Denmark's government will not move ahead with its plan to immediately slaughter all 17 million mink in the country, due to legal obstacles and a lack of political backing.
Last week, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced the mass cull of the country's entire mink population -- including those that are healthy -- amid concerns that a COVID-19 mutation moving from farmed mink to humans could evade future vaccines. But on Monday, Danish Environment and Food Minister Mogens Jensen admitted that the government did not have the legal basis for the order.
Frederiksen's minority Social Democratic government still plans to put forward emergency legislation to back the cull on Tuesday, but the draft needs a three-quarters majority in parliament and opposition parties have already suggested they won't support it.
There are doubts over whether the mass cull is actually scientifically based as well as concerns that it would threaten the livelihoods of hundreds of mink breeders. Denmark is the largest exporter of mink fur in the world.
Meanwhile, mink breeders will continue to cull any infected animals on farms. As of Tuesday morning, around 2.5 million mink -- both infected and healthy -- have been culled so far, a spokesman for Denmark's Ministry of Environment and Food told ABC News. The animals are gassed and then either incinerated or buried in mass graves on military-owned land.
ABC News' Dragon Jovanovic contributed to this report.
New York state logs over 5,000 cases for first time since April
New York state reported more than 5,000 new COVID-19 cases for the first time since late April, when the state was ground zero for the pandemic.
On Thursday, 5,401 people tested positive for COVID-19, Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office announced. A record 203,721 tests were reported, for a positivity rate of 2.65% -- one of the lowest in the nation, the governor said.
"The bad news is we are in the midst of a sea of COVID rising around us," Cuomo said in a statement.
He warned that the state may need to take additional steps to combat the spread of the virus as the holiday season approaches and travel will likely increase.
ABC News' Joshua Hoyos contributed to this report.