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.
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19 US states hit record number of hospitalizations
According to the COVID Tracking Project, 19 U.S. states hit a record number of current hospitalizations Tuesday: Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.
Six states -- Idaho, Maine, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wyoming -- reached a record number of new cases Tuesday. Four states -- Iowa, Kentucky, New Mexico and Wisconsin -- recorded a record number of deaths.
Daily cases have climbed each day over the last week in the U.S., reaching 154,266 on Tuesday, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
ABC News' Brian Hartman, Ben Bell, Soorin Kim and Arielle Mitropoulos contributed to this report.
NYC schools closing Thursday
New York City public schools will close for in-person learning Thursday because the city has reached its 3% positivity rate threshold, said Chancellor Richard Carranza.
All 300,000 students will learn remotely until further notice, he said.
"This is a temporary closure, and school buildings will reopen as soon as it is safe to do so," Carranza said.
According to state data, New York City’s seven-day rolling average positivity rate is 2.5%.
As of Monday, the schools had a positivity rate of 0.23% out of more than 140,000 students and staff tested.
vABC News' Aaron Katersky contributed to this report.
US facing 'worst rate of rise in cases'
White House coronavirus task force member Adm. Brett Giroir said the U.S. is facing "the worst rate of rise in cases that we've seen."
"This is not crying wolf," he stressed in an interview on MSNBC.
Though "vaccines are around the corner," Giroir said, state and local officials must be "very rigorous" about limiting certain businesses, limiting crowds in indoor spaces and enforcing mask use.
"If we do not do that, we will lose tens of thousands of Americans by the time the vaccine is out and widely distributed," he said.
Giroir also urged Americans to remember that a negative test is not a "free pass" to forgo masks and social distancing over the holidays.
"That negative test today does not mean you're going to be negative tomorrow or the next day, and certainly not by Thanksgiving. And it is not a free pass to go without all the important measures that we want, particularly mask wearing, physical distancing and following all the recommendations that the CDC has for the holidays," Giroir said.
ABC News' Brian Hartman contributed to this report.
New surge hits South Korea
South Korea is on edge after a surge in new COVID-19 cases this week.
Since the outbreak in late February, South Korea has mostly maintained low COVID-19 number.
But this week this country is seeing a steady increase and hit the highest in 81 days at 313 newly confirmed cases.
South Korea now has 29,311 cases and 496 deaths.
ABC News' Joohee Cho Christine Theodorou contributed to this report.