A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now infected more than 80.2 million people worldwide and killed over 1.7 million of them, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Here's how the news is developing today. All times Eastern.
Dec 22, 2020, 12:00 PM EST
December on track to become deadliest month of pandemic
With over 51,000 coronavirus-related deaths recorded in the first three weeks of the month, December is on track to surpass April to become the deadliest month of the pandemic in the U.S., according to ABC News’ analysis of data compiled by the COVID Tracking Project.
Hospitalizations are surging to unprecedented levels, with 115,351 patients currently hospitalized nationwide -- a 38.5% increase in the last month.
A respiratory therapist cares for a COVID-19 patient in the Intensive Care Unit at Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center a few days before Christmas, on Dec. 21, 2020 in Chula Vista, Calif. According to state figures, Southern California currently does not have any ICU (Intensive Care Unit) beds available.
Mario Tama/Getty Images
December is also set to become the worst month on record for COVID-19 cases in the U.S. The U.S. surpassed 18 million cases on Monday, only four days after reaching 17 million cases, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.
Crowds form long queues at the departure gates of Washington Reagan National Airport, as the Christmas holiday travel continues despite the Coronavirus pandemic, on Dec. 18, 2020 in Arlington, Va.
Daniel Slim/AFP via Getty Images
ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos contributed to this report.
Dec 22, 2020, 11:43 AM EST
European Commission recommends end to UK travel ban
The European Commission is recommending an end to the United Kingdom’s travel ban in the wake of coronavirus cases in England linked to a new variant of the virus.
Grafton Street is crowded with people shopping on Dec. 20, 2020, in Dublin city center.
NurPhoto via Getty Images
The Commission said, “while it is important to take swift temporary precautionary action to limit the further spread of the new strain of the virus and all non-essential travel to and from the UK should be discouraged, essential travel and transit of passengers should be facilitated. Flight and train bans should be discontinued given the need to ensure essential travel and avoid supply chain disruptions.”
France and several other countries closed their borders to Britain on Monday over fears of the new variant.
While the France-England border is closed for U.K. citizens, French citizens can come home from Britain if they have proof of a negative COVID-19 test, France's BFM television reported on Tuesday.
ABC News’ Kirit Radia and Sohel Uddincontributed to this report.
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, receives his first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine at the National Institutes of Health, Dec. 22, 2020, in Bethesda, Maryland.
Patrick Semansky/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Azar said to the NIH staff, “This is one of your finest accomplishments.”
Dec 22, 2020, 8:21 AM EST
Fauci ‘would not be surprised’ if new variant is in US
Hours before getting vaccinated, Dr. Anthony Fauci told ABC News' "Good Morning America" Tuesday, “I want to symbolize to people the importance that everyone gets vaccinated who can get vaccinated.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases appears on "Good Morning America," Dec. 22, 2020.
ABC News
Fauci will receive the Moderna vaccine, which the National Institutes of Health helped develop. Fauci is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is part of the NIH.
Fauci said the general population will likely start receiving vaccines at the end of March or beginning of April -- but it’s unclear how long that process will take.
“It may take two, three, four months or more before you get everyone vaccinated that wants to be vaccinated,” Fauci said.
A pharmacist administers a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine to a resident of the Triboro Center nursing home in the Bronx borough of New York, Dec. 21, 2020.
Bloomberg via Getty Images
Dr. Theresa Maresca from the Seattle Indian Health Board, lets a colleague write on her arm "For the Love of Native People" over the spot where she received a shot of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, at the SIHB, on December 21, 2020 in Seattle.
Karen Ducey/Getty Images
In the wake of an uptick in cases in England linked to a new COVID-19 variant, Fauci said he “would not be surprised” if the variant is in the U.S.
“When you have this amount of spread within a place like the U.K., you really need to assume that it’s here already. And certainly is not the dominant strain, but I would not be surprised at all if it’s already here," he said.
The reproduction rate of the new variant is 0.4 higher than other known strains, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 technical lead, said Monday. That means the number of people an infected individual transmits to increases from 1.1 to 1.5 with the new variant.
There’s "zero evidence" that the new variant causes more severe disease, said Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme.
