Coronavirus updates: Over 7,000 Americans died in past week

The increase comes less than two weeks after Halloween.

ByMorgan Winsor, Emily Shapiro, Ivan Pereira, and Meredith Deliso
Video byJessie DiMartino
Last Updated: November 18, 2020, 4:38 AM EST

A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 1.3 million people worldwide.

Over 53.2 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 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.

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 nation, with more than 10.7 million diagnosed cases and at least 244,283 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:

Here's how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Nov 10, 2020, 1:54 PM EST

Vaccine distribution could possibly start in late November

If Pfizer's vaccine is authorized by the FDA, U.S. distribution could start at increments of about 20 million doses per month, potentially as early as late November, Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar told reporters Tuesday.

"Back in April, when I was forming Operation Warp Speed, if you told me that by November we would have exciting data from a Phase 3 vaccine trial and substantial supplies of a monoclonal antibody authorized and ready for distribution, I would have been absolutely stunned," Azar said.

Pfizer said Monday that the earliest it could have the requisite safety data needed to apply for FDA authorization is the third week of November. The company also said it expects to produce 50 million doses globally before the end of the year. Each person needs two doses. 

ABC News' Sony Salzman contributed to this report

Nov 10, 2020, 1:27 PM EST

Fauci says 'I will take the vaccine'

Now that Pfizer Inc. said Monday that its vaccine may be 90% effective, Dr. Anthony Fauci says it's possible that "by the time we get into December, we'll be able to have doses available for people ... at the highest priority to get it first."

"Hopefully, since this is such an effective vaccine, or efficacious at least in the trial, that after a reasonable period of time, we will get vaccine to everyone who wants and needs it and hopefully that will be the overwhelming majority of the country," Fauci told MSNBC Tuesday. "The vaccine is a very, very important tool in ending this pandemic both domestically and internationally.”

PHOTO: Dr. Anthony Fauci testifies during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Hearing to examine COVID-19. Washington, D.C., Sept. 23, 2020.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, testifies during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Hearing to examine COVID-19. Washington, D.C., Sept. 23, 2020.
Graeme Jennings/Reuters, FILE

Fauci added that he will take the vaccine and he'll "recommend that my family take the vaccine.”

ABC News' Sophie Tatum contributed to this report

Nov 10, 2020, 1:02 PM EST

Every state is reporting an increasing number of new cases

Every state in the country is reporting an increasing number of new COVID-19 cases, according to the COVID Tracking Project 

In Washington, D.C., and five states -- California, Hawaii, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont -- cases are low, but increasing.

In the remaining 45 states as well as Guam, and Puerto Rico, cases are high and staying high.

A view shows the entrance to the emergency room of Avera St. Luke's Hospital as the COVID-19 outbreak continues in Aberdeen, South Dakota, Oct. 26, 2020.
Bing Guan/Reuters

Medical workers direct traffic at the University of Texas-El Paso (UTEP) COVID-19 drive-thru testing site in El Paso, Texas, Nov. 9, 2020.
Jorge Salgado/Reuters

ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos, Soorin Kim, Brian Hartman and Ben Bell contributed to this report

Nov 10, 2020, 10:23 AM EST

Paris prosecutor opens judicial inquiries into COVID-19 response complaints

The Paris prosecutor's office has opened four judicial inquiries in response to complaints related to how French authorities have handled the coronavirus pandemic.

Remy Heitz, the chief public prosecutor in the French capital, said in a statement Tuesday that the judicial inquiries bring together 253 complaints against decision-makers and national public structures from the general population, health workers, civil servants as well as sick or dead people that were addressed to the Paris prosecutor's office since March 24.

The investigations will enable the prosecutor's office to carry out complex investigations intended to bring to light any criminal offenses on counts of voluntary abstention from fighting a disaster, endangering the lives of others and unintentional homicides and injuries.

France, along with much of Europe, is in the grip of a second wave of COVID-19 infections. Paris and its suburbs have been particularly hard-hit.

ABC News' Ibtissem Guenfoud contributed to this report.

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