The new coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 600,000 people worldwide.
More than 14.1 million people worldwide have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new respiratory virus, according to data compiled by the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering. The actual numbers are believed to be much higher due to a paucity of evidence, many unreported cases, and suspicions that some governments are hiding or minimizing the extent of their nations’ outbreaks.
The United States has become the most affected country, with more than 3.6 million diagnosed cases and at least 139,266 deaths.
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This is how the news unfolds on Friday. All eastern times. Check back for updates.
9:14 am: Miami Beach sets the curfew at 8 pm
Miami Beach residents are now under the curfew at 8 pm amid growing cases in Florida.
The curfew, which took effect on Saturday at 12:01 am, is two hours before the county-wide curfew and runs through July 24.
All businesses in the area, including commercial, entertainment, and restaurants, must close before 8 pm. Take-out will also be prohibited from 8 pm to 6 am
8:37 am: 25 million infected in Iran, says president
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said an astonishing 25 million Iranians have been infected with the coronavirus, a figure that is much higher than the official figure of some 271,000 and beats current confirmed global cases.
Rouhani said the 25 million was based on a new report from the Health Ministry, but did not elaborate on why there was such a discrepancy.
The president also said another 35 million people “will be at risk.” Iran has a population of over 80 million.
“Our estimate is that so far 25 million Iranians have been infected with this virus and around 14,000 have lost their beloved lives,” Rouhani said in a televised speech.
The official number of confirmed cases in Iran is 271,606, according to data from Johns Hopkins, which places them in the 10 most affected countries. Globally, there are more than 14 million confirmed cases.
The 25 million infected would make Iran the most affected country. The United States currently holds that position, with more than 3.6 million.
7:02 am: Florida sheriff uses helicopter to break up ‘COVID-19 parties’
The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office in Florida announced that it is using helicopters to patrol and break “COVID-19 parties.”
The sheriff’s office released aerial footage from the helicopter on Friday that showed a large gathering taking place on the street and then officers stopped to break it up.
Sheriff Russ Gibson told ABC affiliate WFTV that many young people are meeting at a house party to plan to contract the coronavirus or do not care if they become infected.
Gibson said his department plans to increase its patrols this weekend and focus on three subdivisions on the west side of the county where he said people rent houses for the weekend and have large groups for home parties, according to WFTV.
The large gatherings come at a time when Florida is experiencing a sharp increase in coronavirus cases, hospitalizations, and deaths.
Florida has more than 327,000 diagnosed cases, with at least 4,805 deaths.
The Sunshine state added 11,548 new cases on Friday, the third consecutive day that the state had a single-day case total of more than 10,000. Friday also marks the third day in a row that the state reported more than 120 deaths. More than 9,000 patients are also hospitalized today, nearly 1,900 of them in Miami-Dade County.
4:51 pm: US death count increased 19%
The number of new coronavirus cases increased 19.7% from last week and the national death count increased 19% during the same period, according to an internal memo from the Federal Emergency Management Agency obtained by ABC News.
Those figures are not the only increases. The national mortality rate is now 3.8% and the test positivity rate has increased slightly in the last seven days, reaching 10.1%. It was 9.8% during the previous week, according to FEMA. memorandum.
Other troubling increases include that 13% of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 are on a ventilator, which is the first weekly increase in this statistic since early June. Additionally, 32% of ventilators in use in the US are occupied by patients with COVID-19. At the coronavirus peak in April, it was 45%. In early June, it was 17%, according to FEMA.
The number of beds available in the ICU also remains a problem. The memo says that 19% of all medical facilities in the US have more than 80% of their ICU beds full.
Two of the hardest hit states, Florida and Texas, are not yet seeing a slowdown in the cases. From July 8 to 14, Florida had its highest test positivity rate to date at 17.9%. She also had a record daily death toll of 156 on July 16. Hospitalizations in the Sunshine State, according to the FEMA memo, are expected to increase by 10 days.
Meanwhile, in Texas, the state had a record of cases and deaths on July 15.
This grim news is not exclusive to the US, COVID-19 cases reached 14 million worldwide on Friday. The world reached 10 million on June 28, an increase of 40% in less than three weeks.
What to know about the coronavirus:
ABC News Josh Margolin, Kirit Radia and Somayeh Malekian contributed to this report.
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