The United States has at least 167,242 COVID-19 deaths.
August 14, 2020, 1:37 PM
5 min read
The novel coronavirus has now killed more than 753,000 people worldwide.
Nearly 21 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 United States is the worst-affected country in the world, with more than 5.2 million diagnosed cases and at least 167,242 deaths.
Latest headlines:
Here’s how the news is developing today. All times Eastern. Please refresh this page for updates.
8:55 a.m.: Doctors believe baby contracted COVID-19 in womb
A newborn is believed to have contracted COVID-19 through her mother’s womb, according to doctors at a Texas hospital.
Dr. Mambarambath Jaleel, who runs the neonatal ICU at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, Texas, said this is likely the first baby in the nation to have contracted the virus in such a manner, according to ABC Dallas affiliate WFAA.
The baby’s mother had tested positive for COVID-19 in April and had to give birth to her child prematurely, though it was not immediately clear if COVID-19 played a factor in the early birth, according to WFAA.
When the baby was born, doctors administered two coronavirus tests and the baby tested positive both times, Jaleel said. Doctors also tested the mother’s placenta.
“Having the testing positive of the placenta, the most likely explanation was the transmission of infection was when the baby was in the mother’s womb,” Jaleel told WFAA.
The baby began to develop a fever and required supplemental oxygen; however, the baby is now home and healthy with her mother.
05:33 a.m.: CDC: Up to 200,000 deaths by Labor Day
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicted in its latest forecast that the U.S. coronavirus death toll could reach 200,000 by Labor Day as children across the country head back to school.
Its national ensemble forecast predicts that 4,200 to 10,600 new COVID-19 deaths will be reported for the week ending on Sept. 5 and that 180,000 to 200,000 total COVID-19 deaths will be reported by that date.
Last month, the CDC predicted there would be between 160,000 and 175,000 deaths by August 15th. As of August 13, with more than 1,000 deaths a day every day for more than two weeks, there have been 167,097 deaths.
The U.S. surpassed 100,000 COVID-19 deaths on May 27.
New cases continue to decrease across the country week-over-week, but the rate of new deaths have increased over the same period, according to a Federal Emergency Management Agency memo obtained by ABC News.
There were 7,517 deaths recorded from Aug. 5 to 12, which marked a 2.3% increase in new deaths compared with the previous week. The national test-positivity rate remains at 6.5%.
ABC News analyzed state coronavirus trends across all 50 states, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico, and found there were increases in cases in two states (Hawaii and Illinois) and Puerto Rico, increases in the daily rate of positivity in 15 states plus D.C., increases in hospitalizations in 19 states, and increases in daily deaths in 23 states, D.C, and Puerto Rico.
What to know about coronavirus:
ABC News’ Brian Hartman, Josh Margolin and Arielle Mitropoulos contributed to this report.
