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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 23, 2020, 2:19 PM 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 23, 2020, 2:19 PM EST

Over 1 million Americans have received 1st vaccine dose

At least 1,008,025 Americans had received their first dose of the vaccine as of 9 a.m. Wednesday, according to a tally from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

PHOTO: A patient at Crown Heights Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation is given a plant to congratulate him after he received the coronavirus disease vaccine from Walgreens Pharmacist Annette Marshall, in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Dec. 22, 2020.
A patient at Crown Heights Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, a nursing home facility, is given a plant to congratulate him after he received the coronavirus disease vaccine from Walgreens Pharmacist Annette Marshall, in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Dec. 22, 2020.
Yuki Iwamura/Reuters

There have been 9,465,725 doses distributed across the country.

ABC News’ Eric Strauss contributed to this report.

Dec 23, 2020, 12:20 PM EST

1st New York City EMTs get vaccinated

The first New York City EMTs were vaccinated Wednesday morning, with the hopes of inoculating 450 FDNY members per day.

Members of the Fire Department of New York Emergency Medical Services fill out forms as they prepare to receive their coronavirus vaccine on Dec. 23, 2020, in New York.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

A worker of the New York City Fire Department Bureau of Emergency Medical Services receives a COVID-19 vaccine in the Manhattan borough of New York, Dec. 23, 2020.
Carlo Allegri/Reuters

Since the pandemic began -- with New York City as the spring’s epicenter -- 5,700 members of the FDNY have been diagnosed with COVID-19.

On Tuesday, the FDNY lost its 12th employee to COVID-19. EMT Evelyn Ford, 58, leaves behind four children.

ABC News’ Aaron Katersky contributed to this report.

Dec 23, 2020, 11:16 AM EST

UK travelers must quarantine upon arrival in NYC

In the wake of new variants of the coronavirus in the United Kingdom, travelers arriving in New York City from the U.K. will be visited by a sheriff’s deputy to confirm they are quarantining, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

Additionally, all international travelers will receive a city health commissioner’s order to quarantine via certified mail.

Those who are found in violation will face daily $1,000 fines.

“We cannot take chances with anyone who travels,” the mayor said.

ABC News’ Aaron Katersky contributed to this report.

Dec 23, 2020, 11:12 AM EST

Another variant detected in UK

Another COVID-19 variant has been detected in two cases in the United Kingdom, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said.

Pedestrians walk past a COVID-19 Tier 4 information sign in central London on Dec. 23, 2020.
Tolga Akmen/AFP via Getty Images

"Both are contacts of cases who have traveled from South Africa over the past few weeks,” Hancock said.

Hancock said the “new variant is highly concerning because it is yet more transmissible and it appears to have mutated further than the new variant that has been discovered in the U.K."

The health secretary said both cases and close contacts of the cases have been quarantined.

U.K. travel to and from South Africa is suspended, Hancock said.

The coronavirus is constantly mutating, and there are many thousands of lineages of the virus, each with distinct mutations. There's no evidence this new variant is more deadly and there's no evidence it will affect the vaccine.

ABC News' Mike Trew contributed to this report.