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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Kentucky issues new restrictions as positivity rate rises
Bars and restaurants in Kentucky soon will be closed for indoor service, Gov. Andy Beshear said.
Private gatherings will be limited to two households -- not to exceed eight people -- and larger events such as weddings and funerals will be limited to 25 people, he said.
"We have been under attack, we have been at war with this coronavirus," Beshear said, calling the new restrictions a third "counter-attack."
The state's positivity rate has increased to 9.13%, which Beshear called "alarming."
The new measures go into effect Friday and last until Dec. 13.
Florida mayors beg governor to enact statewide mask mandate
The mayors of five Florida cities -- Miami Beach, St. Petersburg, Sunrise, Miami Shores and Hialeah -- are begging Gov. Ron DeSantis to enact a statewide mask mandate. At a Wednesday news conference, they also asked DeSantis to allow local governments to make decisions for their communities in regards to social distancing, contact tracing and testing.
“Since the governor opened up the economy totally in late September and simultaneously prevented local governments from enforcing individual mask mandates, we have seen an enormous surge," Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber said. "Our state's primary economic engine is hospitality, and people will not travel here if they believe it's unsafe. In fact, I'm convinced in projecting our state as a place where people are not wearing masks and where the virus is allowed to spread unconstrained will only serve to discourage visitors.”
“We are asking the governor to lead," Gelber said.
"For whatever reason our governor has decided that he is going to follow the lead of our president and not listen to what the medical experts and what the health care experts are saying," added St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman. "We have got to have a state that follows the same rules and puts in place the same rules as some of the other states around the country."
Florida on Wednesday topped 900,000 total COVID-19 cases.
ABC News' Rachel Katz contributed to this report.
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.
FDA could approve emergency use of Pfizer vaccine in December
Pfizer said it's completed its submission to the Food and Drug Administration in which the company requests emergency use authorization for its vaccine.
The FDA is expected to start digging into the efficacy and safety data immediately, and it could make a decision as early as mid-December.
ABC News' Sony Salzman contributed to this report.