Coronavirus updates: 23-year-old college student dies from COVID-19
Jamesha Waddell, a senior at Livingstone College, died Thursday.
A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 1.3 million people worldwide.
Over 58.7 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 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.
The United States is the worst-affected nation, with more than 12.2 million diagnosed cases and at least 256,783 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:
India becomes 2nd country in the world to reach 9 million cases
India's tally of COVID-19 cases has hit the 9 million mark, becoming only the second country in the world to do so.
The Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare confirmed 45,882 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, along with an additional 584 deaths from the disease. That brings the country's cumulative total to 9,004,365 cases with 132,162 deaths.
Despite surpassing the grim milestone, India has seen a steady decline in its infection rate since reaching a peak of 97,894 new cases on Sept. 16.
India has the second-highest tally of COVID-19 cases in the world, behind only the United States, and the third-highest death toll from the pandemic, after the United States and Brazil. The relatively low death toll in a vast county of 1.3 billion people has raised questions about how India is counting COVID-19 fatalities.
US records all-time high of over 187K new cases
There were 187,833 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in the United States on Thursday, marking the highest single-day increase in infections worldwide since the pandemic began, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
It's the first time that the United States has reported over 180,000 newly diagnosed infections. Thursday's count shatters the country's previous record of 177,224 new cases on Nov. 13.
An additional 2,015 fatalities from COVID-19 were also registered nationwide on Thursday, the highest since May 6 but still under a peak of 2,609 new deaths on April 15, according to Johns Hopkins data.
A total of 11,717,947 people in the United States have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and at least 252,555 of them have died, according to Johns Hopkins data. The cases include people from all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C. and other U.S. territories as well as repatriated citizens.
Much of the country was under lockdown by the end of March as the first wave of pandemic hit. 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 100,000 for the first time on Nov. 4.
Pentagon policy chief tests positive for COVID after meeting Lithuanian defense minister
The Pentagon’s top policy chief, Anthony Tata, has tested positive for COVID-19 after his Monday meeting with Lithuania’s defense minister, Raimundas Karoblis.
On Thursday. the Lithuanian embassy informed the Pentagon that the minister had tested positive for the virus.
During his visit to the Pentagon, Karoblis met with multiple senior leaders, including acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller, the secretaries of the Army and Air Force and the secretary of the Navy. All have tested negative since their meetings. Tata is now self-isolating.
ABC News' Luis Martinez contributed to this report.
51 states and territories in upward trajectory of new cases: HHS
There are 51 states and territories in an upward trajectory of new COVID-19 cases, according to an internal Health and Human Services memo obtained by ABC News Thursday night.
Two jurisdictions are at a plateau, and one is going down, the memo said.
There were 1,151,468 new cases confirmed during the period of Nov. 12 to 18 -- a 35.4% increase from the previous seven-day period. There were 8,601 deaths, up 8.3% over the previous week.
The national test-positivity rate increased to 11.1% from 9.6% in week-to-week comparisons.
Across the country, 29% of hospitals have more than 80% of their ICU beds filled. That number was 17%-18% during the summertime peak.
Iowa, Indiana, Maryland and Pennsylvania in particular are seeing high rates of hospitalizations. In Ohio, hospitalizations could quadruple by Christmas at the current rate of growth, the memo said.
ABC News' Josh Margolin contributed to this report