Coronavirus Watch: Does Russia already have a vaccine?

Russia has claimed victory in the race for a coronavirus vaccine after it became the first country to officially register one and declare it ready for use Tuesday.

But Trump administration officials were dismissive of the news. 

"The point is not to be first with a vaccine. The point is to have a vaccine that is safe and effective for the American people and the people of the world," U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told ABC's "Good Morning America."

It's Tuesday, and this is the Coronavirus Watch from the Paste BN Network. Here is the most significant news of the day, as of 2:15 p.m. ET:

• Children represent less than 10% of all confirmed U.S. COVID-19 cases, but the total number of youth cases has almost doubled in the last month, a new report says. Almost 180,000 new child cases were reported from between July 9 and Aug. 6, raising the total number to more than 380,000, the American Academy of Pediatrics reported.
• Assaulting a worker who is enforcing face mask policies is now a felony in Illinois. An aggravated battery charge can result in a sentence of up to five years in prison.
• At least 49 state and local public health leaders have resigned, retired or been fired since April across 23 states, a review by the Kaiser Health News service and The Associated Press found. One of the latest departures came Sunday when California’s public health director was ousted. 
• A virus outbreak among Vermont prisoners being held at a Mississippi prison highlights the potential danger of importing and exporting inmates during a pandemic.
• Mississippi legislators have returned to the state Capitol for the first time since a coronavirus outbreak in early July hospitalized several legislators and killed one person. Mississippi’s state health officer, Dr. Thomas Dobbs, said 49 legislators had tested positive in the outbreak — more than one-fourth of the entire body.

Today's numbers: Indiana and Puerto Rico set a record for new cases in a week, a Paste BN analysis of Johns Hopkins data through late Monday shows. Meanwhile, record numbers of deaths were reported in Arkansas, California, Georgia, Hawaii and West Virginia, and in Puerto Rico. See the numbers in your area here, and check out where cases are rising here.

What do you want to know about the coronavirus? Submit your questions through this form. Donna from Phoenix says: I'd like to see a comparison of flu and coronavirus deaths.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that, from Oct.1, 2019, through April 4, 2020, there have been somewhere between 39 million and 56 million flu illnesses in the U.S. and between 24,000 and 62,000 deaths. While there have been at least 5.1 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. and more than 163,000 deaths, health experts estimate that the true number of infections could be 10 times that amount and would have been far higher without stay-at-home and distancing orders.

Globally, the World Health Organization estimates that there are about 1 billion flu illnesses every year, resulting in 290,000 to 650,000 influenza-related respiratory deaths. Since the novel coronavirus broke out in Wuhan, China, late last year, there have been more than 20.1 million confirmed cases and more than 737,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

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– Grace Hauck, Paste BN breaking news reporter, @grace_hauck