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NY health provider may have fraudulently obtained COVID-19 vaccine

The vaccine was then given to members of the public not yet eligible.

ByRosa Sanchez, Emily Shapiro, and Ivan Pereira
Last Updated: December 29, 2020, 11:11 AM EST

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.

Latest headlines:

Here's how the news is developing today. All times Eastern.
Dec 22, 2020, 2:19 PM EST

Dr. Birx says she plans to retire

Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said she’s planning to retire but is available to help President-elect Joe Biden’s administration with the pandemic, The Associated Press reported.

White House coronavirus task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx speaks during a White House Coronavirus Task Force press briefing in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on Nov. 19, 2020, in Washington, DC.
Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Dec 22, 2020, 1:55 PM EST

2020 marks deadliest year in US history: AP

This year has become the deadliest year in U.S. history, with overall deaths expected to climb above 3 million for the first time, The Associated Press reported.

So far 320,864 Americans have lost their lives to COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

PHOTO: Family members and friends mourn the death of Conrad Coleman Jr. at his burial service on July 03, 2020 in Rye, New York. Coleman, 39, died of Covid-19 on June 20, 2020, just over two months after his father also died of the disease.
Family members and friends mourn the death of Conrad Coleman Jr. at his burial service on July 03, 2020 in Rye, New York. Coleman, 39, died of Covid-19 on June 20, 2020, just over two months after his father Conrad Coleman Sr. also died of the disease.
John Moore/Getty Images

Dec 22, 2020, 1:14 PM EST

Pregnant women in 3rd trimester unlikely to pass virus to newborns 

Pregnant women with COVID-19 during the third trimester are unlikely to pass the infection to their newborns, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health and published in the journal JAMA Network Open. 

The study followed 127 pregnant women, and among the 64 women in their third trimester who tested positive for COVID-19, no newborns tested positive. 

ABC News’ Adjoa Smalls-Mantey and Eric Strauss contributed to this report.

Dec 22, 2020, 1:02 PM EST

New York hospitals to test for UK variant

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is instructing hospitals across the state to test specifically for the variant of the coronavirus discovered in the United Kingdom.

“If we find the variant, we want to know where it is immediately,” Cuomo said. 

Crowds of people wearing masks visit the Bank of America Winter Village in Bryant Park as the city of New York continues the re-opening efforts following restrictions imposed to slow the spread of coronavirus, on Dec. 13, 2020.
Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images

Cuomo said he does not support a travel ban from the U.K. into the U.S., but does believe the U.S. should follow New York state’s lead in requiring flights originating in the U.K. to have passengers test negative.

Dr. Anthony Fauci told ABC News’ “Good Morning America” Tuesday that “the possibility and maybe the likelihood of requiring the testing of individuals before they board a plane to the United States -- that is under active discussion.”

Fauci added, “you really need to assume” that the variant is already in the U.S.

ABC News’ Aaron Katersky contributed to this report.