A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 1 million people worldwide.
Over 34.2 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 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 7.2 million diagnosed cases and at least 207,789 deaths.
California has the most cases of any U.S. state, with more than 822,000 people diagnosed, according to Johns Hopkins data. California is followed by Texas and Florida, with over 776,000 cases and over 709,000 cases, respectively.
Nearly 190 vaccine candidates for COVID-19 are being tracked by the World Health Organization, at least nine of which are in crucial phase three trials.
– CDC forecasts up to 232K deaths by Oct. 24
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicts that the U.S. death toll could climb to between 219,000 and 232,000 deaths by Oct. 24.
Previous forecasts have been on target, but on the lower end. One recent estimate forecast 206,000 to 217,000 deaths by this weekend and the CDC count is 207,000 deaths as of Friday.
