Coronavirus latest: 5 states removed from New York travel advisory list

PHOTO: Delta Air Lines pre-flight cleaning crew members use electrostatic disinfection devices to clean an aircraft at JFK International Airport in New York, Aug. 6, 2020.

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Shannon Stapleton/Reuters, FILE

Why opening public schools during a pandemic is so difficult

A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 814,000 people worldwide.

Over 23.7 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.

Since the first cases were detected in China in December, the United States has become the worst-affected country, with more than 5.7 million diagnosed cases and at least 177,873 deaths.

Nearly 170 vaccine candidates are being tracked by the World Health Organization. Six of these are in crucial phase three trials, where thousands are being administered vaccine doses.

Aug 25, 2020 7:15 PM

University of Miami has 141 test positive

Testing at the University of Miami showed 141 people, most of them students, tested positive for COVID-19, according to data from the school.

There were 2,627 students, faculty, staff and university vendors were tested between Aug. 16 and Aug. 22, the school posted on its new COVID-19 dashboard.

Johnny Louis/Getty Images

University Of Miami in Coral Gables, Fla., on July 10, 2020.

There were an additional 59 students placed in isolation and another 98 quarantined because of potential exposure to someone who was infected.

One member of the university staff was hospitalized.

Aug 25, 2020 5:01 PM

Florida county has 158 quarantined since schools opened last week

There are 158 people who have been asked to quarantine in Seminole County, Florida, since schools opened for in-person learning last week.

The Seminole County School District opened schools on Aug. 17.

Nine schools in the district have people who are under quarantine -- the district has approximately 12 positive cases, according to public school officials.

Those in quarantine were switched to the remote learning platform until they are cleared to return to the schools, officials said.

ABC News' Rachel Katz contributed to this report.

Aug 25, 2020 4:17 PM

New York removes 5 states from travel advisory list, adds Guam

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday that five states -- Alaska, Arizona, Delaware, Maryland and Montana -- have been removed from the Empire State's coronavirus travel advisory list, while the U.S. territory of Guam has been added.

The advisory mandates a 14-day self-quarantine for travelers arriving from areas "with significant community spread." That list now includes Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Guam, Hawaii, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, Nevada, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Virgin Islands and Wisconsin.

New York state has had a rate of positive COVID-19 tests below 1% for 18 straight days, according to Cuomo, who warned "this pandemic is not over" and urged residents to "stay vigilant and be careful."

"New Yorkers made enormous sacrifices to get our numbers as low as they are today, and we don't want to give up an inch of that hard-earned progress," Cuomo said at Tuesday's press briefing. "That's why these travel advisory precautions are so important -- we don't want people who travel to states with high community spread to bring the virus back here."

Aug 25, 2020 3:41 PM

Madrid to make masks mandatory in schools for children

Face masks will be obligatory for children aged 6 and older while at schools in Spain's central capital.

Madrid's regional premier, Isabel Diaz Ayuso, announced the new measure at a press conference Tuesday, while presenting a strategy for the safe return to schools amid the coronavirus pandemic. She said class sizes will also be reduced and thousands more teachers will be hired on a temporary basis.

Diaz Ayuso noted that, if Madrid's epidemiological situation improves, face masks will only be mandatory for students aged 11 and up. The region is planning for the staggered reopening of schools in September.

PHOTO: Health workers get ready to take samples for COVID-19 tests at a medical center in Madrid, Spain, on Aug. 17, 2020.

Andrea Comas/AP

Health workers get ready to take samples for COVID-19 tests at a medical center in Madrid, Spain, on Aug. 17, 2020. The number of new daily cases has been steadily climbing since Spain ended a more than three-month national lockdown on June 21.

With over 405,000 diagnosed cases of COVID-19 so far, Spain has the highest case count of any country in Europe. The day-to-day increase of new cases has been steadily climbing since Spain emerged from a more than three-month national lockdown in late June.

Last week, Spain's head of health emergencies, Dr. Fernando Simon, warned that "things are not going well" regarding a recent spike of infections.

"Each day, we are seeing more and more transmission," Simon said.