By Jessie Yeung, Steve George and Zamira Rahim, CNN
The US reported 21,760 new cases of coronavirus and 1,174 related deaths today, according to Johns Hopkins University.
That brings the national tally to at least 1,721,753 cases and 101,616 deaths.
The totals includes cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases.
New York is the hardest-hit state, with 366,733 cases and 29,529 deaths. New Jersey, Illinois and California follow.
Take a look at CNN's live tracker of US cases:
From CNN's Jim Acosta, Kevin Liptak and Sarah Westwood
As the American death count from coronavirus ticks above 100,000, the panel assembled by President Donald Trump to confront the pandemic has been sharply curtailed while the White House looks ahead to reopening.
Vice President Mike Pence convened the White House coronavirus task force on Thursday for the first time in a week. The group of doctors and high-ranking administration officials, which met daily even on weekends at the height of the pandemic, has seen its formal sessions reduced from three per week at the start of May to one per week now, according to White House schedules.
The task force has essentially been sidelined by Trump, said senior administration officials and others close to the group, who described a greatly reduced role for the panel created to guide the administration's response to the pandemic.
Asked about the dwindling number of task force meetings, one administration official said there are not as many decisions that need to be made on an urgent basis.
"You don't need a decision every day" on some of the items on the task force's agenda, the official said. "We're monitoring things," the official added.
Read the full story here:
From CNN's Jake Kwon
South Korea recorded 58 new coronavirus cases and no new deaths on Thursday, said authorities Friday.
That brings the national total to 11,402 cases and 269 deaths.
Authorities are also working to contain a new cluster that emerged this week in a logistics center near Seoul. A total of 96 cases have been linked to the cluster, said Vice Health Minister Kim Gang-lip.
Of 4,351 workers and visitors at the center, 3,836 people had been tested for the virus.
Online learning: Meanwhile, 502 schools in Seoul metropolitan area had switched to online classes due to the recent outbreaks and clusters, said Vice Education Minister Park Baeg-beom.
As of Thursday, 838 schools across the nation had postponed reopening of the schools and continued with online classes, the Education Ministry said.
From CNN's Yoko Wakatsuki
Japan reported 63 new coronavirus cases and seven new deaths on Thursday -- the biggest one-day jump in infections since May 14.
Of the new cases on Thursday, 21 came from the southern city of Kitakyushu. The city had reported zero new infections for 23 days -- then it saw its numbers spike again, raising fears that a second wave may be arriving. Kitakyushu has now reported 43 new cases in the past six days.
This raises the national total to 17,431 cases and 887 deaths, including the cases and deaths from the Princess Diamond cruise ship.
From CNN's Rodrigo Pedroso in Sao Paulo and Taylor Barnes in Atlanta
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro called for the economy to open up, saying that the closures in non-essential sectors were "“a terrible disgrace” for the country.
Speaking in a Facebook live on Thursday, Bolsonaro said that he wants the economy “to run again.”
“Its been 70 days now that I am saying that we have two problems: life and the virus, of course, but also unemployment,” Bolsonaro said.
“It was a terrible disgrace what they (mayors and governors) did, this way of shutting everything down,” the President added.
Bolsonaro added that he supported "vertical isolation," in which elderly and vulnerable people like his mother stay home, but allows "young people" to return to work.
Controversial president: Critics have lambasted Bolsonaro's approach to the pandemic, both within the country and internationally.
Arthur Virgilio Neto, the mayor of a Brazilian city that was badly hit with the virus, called on Bolsonaro to resign.
Brazil has suffered more infections than every country in the world except the United States, and is yet to reach a peak of cases and fatalities, experts warn.
From CNN's Sarah Dean and Lauren Kent in London and Chandler Thornton in Atlanta
The British public is staying home despite Prime Minister Boris Johnson recently easing lockdown restrictions, according to a new study by King's College London.
“The UK government’s advice may have shifted to ‘stay alert’, but it’s the ‘stay at home’ message that the public are continuing to follow," Professor Bobby Duffy, Director of the Policy Institute at King’s College London, said.
The study showed that one in seven adults surveyed did not leave their home once in the previous week and 41% of people did not leave their home for five or more of the past seven days.
These numbers show "the seriousness with which the public are still treating the Covid-19 crisis," Duffy said.
More people are also wearing face masks, according to the study which showed that the number of people wearing them has doubled from six weeks ago.
"Compared with six weeks ago, compliance remains very high and virtually unchanged" for measures such as social distancing and hand washing, the study said.
Some context: Prime Minister Johnson said on Thursday that Britain will begin lifting restrictions starting Monday in a phased approach.
The relaxation comes after the death rate in the UK has fallen consistently. From a peak of 943 deaths on April 14, the UK announced 256 coronavirus-related deaths on Thursday -- a significant but diminishing toll.
Earlier tonight, CNN hosted a global town hall on the coronavirus pandemic, covering facts and fears surrounding the disease.
Actress Taraji P. Henson, World Health Organization official Maria Van Kerkhove, and science writer and author of "Spillover" David Quammen were among the guests who spoke to CNN tonight.
Watch all the highlights here:
From CNN's Jen Christensen
There are still several virus hot spots around the world causing concern, said a top World Health Organization official on CNN’s Global Town Hall earlier tonight.
The WHO is keeping a close eye on very large increases in case numbers in Russia, Africa, the Americas, some countries in South Asia and a few countries in Europe, said Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead for the WHO’s coronavirus response.
“These are areas that we are concerned about because, as we know, as you know, when this virus has an opportunity to really take hold it can grow very, very quickly,” Van Kerkhove said. “Any one of these could really take hold and take off very, very quickly and we have seen how this virus affects vulnerable populations, and that’s a big worry of ours.”
She said she hopes a vaccine could be deployable by the end of the year -- but that’s if everything goes right. Scientists are working around the clock on more than 100 vaccine candidates, she said, but the accelerated schedule cannot compromise on safety or efficacy.
From CNN's Jen Christensen
The least predictable aspect of the pandemic is exactly how unprepared we are to deal with it, said author David Quammen on CNN’s Global Town Hall Thursday.
“The science was there. The scientists knew about this,” said Quammen, who wrote "Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic."
"For years, infectious disease specialists have been warning countries that they need to prepare, but political leaders don’t want to spend the money to prepare for a pandemic if it is not likely going to happen during their term in office," he said.
“Scientists could provide the warnings, public health officials could echo the warnings to political leaders, but political leaders tend to be risk averse, and as Bill Gates said, it would cost billions and billions of dollars."
But billions of dollars are nothing compared to the toll of the pandemic, he said.
The threat of wild animals: The world also needs to protect the environment much better, he said. The world’s hunger for meat, timber and minerals has disrupted the Earth’s wild ecosystems putting us all in danger.
“As we do that, we’re coming in contact with all these wild animals that carry all these viruses and as long as we keep doing that, we’re going to be facing these spillovers in these outbreaks in the future,” Quammen said.
Watch:
