Officers spray disinfectant liquid to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in a burial area in Palu, Indonesia, on Sept. 28.
Faldi Muhammad/NurPhoto via Getty Images
For the most up-to-date news and information about the coronavirus pandemic, visit the WHO website.
More than 1 million people have died worldwide as a result of the novel coronavirus as of Monday evening, according to tracking numbers from John Hopkins University. The grim milestone comes less than a week after the number of deaths linked to COVID-19 in the US surpassed 200,000.
More than 33 million people have tested positive for the coronavirus, more than 7 million of whom are in the US.
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COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus, has rapidly spread across the globe. India has the second-highest number of cases at 6 million, followed by Brazil at 4.7 million, Russia at 1.1 million and Colombia and Peru, both of which have recorded by more than 800,000 cases.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has told states to be prepared for a vaccine to arrive by the end of next month. Others say that timeline is unlikely. On Tuesday, Washington Post also reported that there will likely be no vaccine come Election Day on Nov. 3, due to new tougher standards reportedly being introduced by the FDA.
Most public health experts — including top US infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, and Robert Redfield, director of the CDC — have said they anticipate a big uptick this fall and winter. The White House has admitted it’s preparing for the possibility. However, part of that prediction was based on the assumption that the virus would slow down over the summer, which appears not to have happened.
With domestic travel up, mask use down and fall and winter pushing people indoors, “We look like we’re going to have a very deadly December ahead of us in terms of the toll of coronavirus,” Director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation Dr. Christopher Murray told CNN. The number of US deaths could double over the next four months, according to an IHME computer model.
Overall, US cases have begun to decline, which experts attribute to stepped-up masking and social distancing practices in July.
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