Coronavirus updates: Trump says 'not much' he'd change about COVID response
Thirty-one states are considered in the red zone for new cases in the last week.
A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 1.1 million people worldwide.
Over 40.7 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 8.2 million diagnosed cases and at least 220,955 deaths.
California has the most cases of any U.S. state, with more than 883,000 people diagnosed, according to Johns Hopkins data. California is followed by Texas and Florida, with over 862,000 cases and over 760,000 cases, respectively.
More than 190 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:
- Trump says there's 'not much' he'd do differently with COVID response
- COVID-19 patients in hospitals 5 times more likely to die than those hospitalized with flu, CDC says
- Cuomo discourages New Yorkers from unnecessary travel to NJ, PA, CT
- More states in 'red zone,' per White House task force
- Analysis shows rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations in 41 US states
Italy's hard-hit Lombardy region to impose curfew
The Italian region that was once the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic will soon impose a nightly curfew, following a sharp rise in infections.
A curfew from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. local time is expected to begin in Italy's northern Lombardy region on Thursday night and last until at least Nov. 13. All residents must stay home during this period, unless for reasons of health, work or necessity. Non-food shops and retail centers will also be shut on weekends.
Lombardy's regional government received authorization on Monday from Italian Health Minister Robert Speranza to implement more restrictive measures.
The move comes after Italy reported 10,010 new cases of COVID-19 last Friday, the country's highest daily tally since the start of its outbreak, shattering a previous record of 8,804 set last Thursday. Lombardy had the greatest number of cases of any other region that day, at 2,419.
Overall, Italy has confirmed at least 423,578 cases with 36,616 deaths since the start of the pandemic, according to the latest data from the country's civil protection agency.
ABC News' Phoebe Natanson contributed to this report.
Columbian cyclist Fernando Gaviria tests positive for 2nd time this year
Colombian cyclist Fernando Gaviria has been withdrawn from the Giro d’Italia after testing positive for COVID-19, his team said in a statement Tuesday.
It's the second time Gaviria has tested positive for the disease, after contracting it in March.
All other riders and staff members on Gaviria’s UAE Team Emirates had negative test results but will be tested again Tuesday.
"Gaviria was immediately isolated following the test result and is feeling well and is completely asymptomatic," the team said in the statement.
Gaviria, who has won five stages at the Giro d'Italia during his career, is not the first to withdraw from the annual road cycling stage race due to COVID-19. Dutch rider Steven Kruijswijk, Britain's Simon Yates and Australia's Michael Matthews were all forced to pull out last week after testing positive.
The Giro d'Italia, the second Grand Tour of 2020 after the Tour de France took pace between August and September, kicked off on Oct. 3 after initially being postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The race concludes on Oct. 25.
Outbreak at Kansas nursing home kills 10 residents
A COVID-19 outbreak at a privately-owned nursing home in northwestern Kansas has killed at least 10 residents, officials said.
All 62 residents at the Andbe Home in Norton, a four-hour drive from Wichita, have tested positive for COVID-19. Ten have since died, one remains hospitalized and the other 51 are being cared for at the nursing home, according to a press release from the Norton County Health Department.
Some staff members have also tested positive for COVID-19 and the remaining staff are being tested. The Norton County Health Department said it has been working with the Andbe Home, Norton County Hospital and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment regarding the outbreak.
"Steps are being taken to prevent any further outbreak including quarantining residents in their room and not allowing outside visitors into the facility," the agency said in Monday's press release. "Family members of the residents have been notified."
Northwestern Kansas has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic in recent weeks, and Norton County had the greatest number of new cases per 100,000 residents of any county in the United States for the two weeks ending Sunday, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.
Cases in Norton County, which is home to some 5,400 residents, increased from 46 two weeks ago to 340 as of Monday, according to data from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
Analysis shows rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations in 41 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 41 states.
The analysis also found increases in newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 in 39 states, increases in the daily positivity rate of COVID-19 tests in 27 states and increases in daily COVID-19 death tolls in 13 states.
Over the last five weeks, cases have been steadily increasing across the nation. The United States is currently averaging over 55,000 new cases a day -- the highest that average has been since Aug. 5. New cases have surged by over 61% since Sept. 12. Meanwhile, current COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to hover between 36,000 and 37,000.
In the past week alone, the country has recorded nearly 386,000 new cases, including two days where there were over 60,000 cases reported -- the highest daily figures since late July.
Sixteen states reported record weekly increases in new cases. Fourteen states hit a record number of current COVID-19 hospitalizations last week, while two states saw a record number of current hospitalizations in a day. Two states reported their highest weekly death tolls from COVID-19.
This week, the United States is on track to top 1 million cases for the month of October, making it the fourth month on record to surpass the grim milestone.
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.
UK to launch controversial vaccine trials where volunteers will be infected
In a bid to speed up the race to find a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, the U.K. government announced Tuesday morning that it will be launching some controversial vaccine studies known as challenge trials.
In a world first for COVID-19, young healthy volunteers will be vaccinated, then intentionally exposed to the potentially deadly virus in order to test vaccines in a controlled environment. Although some medical experts view them as ethically questionable, the benefit of challenge trials is that they can be completed in a much shorter timeframe than typical late-stage studies.
The experiment will take place in a quarantine ward of a hospital in north London. After inhaling a diluted dose of the virus, the trial participants will be closely monitored, thus enabling scientists and doctors to better understand the disease and how a vaccine can fight it.
"Human challenge studies can increase our understanding of COVID-19 in unique ways and accelerate development of the many potential new COVID-19 treatments and vaccines," said Dr. Chris Chiu of Imperial College London's Department of Infectious Disease, a lead researcher on the human challenge study.
ABC News' Zoe Magee contributed to this report.