Ovidiu Dugulan/iStockBy MORGAN WINSOR, ABC News
(NEW YORK) — A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 501,000 people worldwide.
Over 10.1 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 governments are hiding the scope of their nations’ outbreaks.
Since the first cases were detected in China in December, the United States has become the worst-affected country, with more than 2.5 million diagnosed cases and at least 125,803 deaths.
Here’s how the news is developing Monday. All times Eastern:
4:39 a.m.: China sees decline in new cases
China on Monday reported just 12 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and no new deaths, as the country which was the original epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic continues to see a downward trend in infections.
Five of the new cases were imported from overseas while seven were cases of domestic transmission in Beijing, where more than eight million of the city’s 21 million residents have been tested for the novel coronavirus in recent weeks. The Chinese capital has seen a recent spike in infections, though the number of new cases reported there on Monday was down by half from the previous day, according to China’s National Health Commission.
Overall, the Chinese mainland has reported 83,512 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with at least 4,634 deaths. There are still 418 patients receiving treatment for the disease, while another 112 are under observation for testing positive without showing any symptoms or for being suspected cases, according to the National Health Commission.
3:42 a.m.: US reports more than 38,800 new cases
More than 38,800 new cases of COVID-19 were identified in the United States on Sunday, according to a count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
The latest daily caseload is down from the country’s record high of more than 45,000 new cases identified last Friday.
The national total currently stands at 2,549,028 diagnosed cases with at least 125,803 deaths.
The new cases include people from all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., and other U.S. territories as well as repatriated citizens.
By May 20, all states had begun lifting stay-at-home orders and other restrictions put in place to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. The day-to-day increase in cases then hovered around 20,000 for a couple of weeks before shooting back up to over 30,000 and then crossing 40,000 last week.
Nearly half of all 50 states have seen a rise in infections in recent weeks, with some — such as Florida, South Carolina and Georgia — reporting daily records.
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