NY health provider may have fraudulently obtained COVID-19 vaccine

The Duke women's basketball team has decided to end its season due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"The student-athletes on the Duke women's basketball team have made the difficult decision to conclude their current season due to safety concerns," Michael Schoenfeld, Duke's vice president for public affairs and government relations and chief communications officer, said in a statement. "We support their decision, as we have supported the choices made by all student-athletes at Duke during this unprecedented time."

The team suspended activities on Dec. 16 after two members of the program's "travel party" tested positive for COVID-19. It's unclear if they were players or staff, but contact tracing didn't allow for the team to field enough players.

The Blue Devils had gone 3-1 in the first four games under newly hired head coach Kara Lawson. The former Tennessee star and ESPN commentator said earlier this season she did not believe that college basketball games should proceed during the pandemic.

Duke men's coach, Hall of Famer Mike Krzyzewski, made similar comments this month as well. The men's team, currently ranked No. 20 in the AP poll, has continued to play.

The Duke women's team is the first major program to end their season.

There are currently more than 120,000 patients hospitalized with coronavirus in the United States, according to The COVID Tracking Project. 

In an evening update on Christmas Eve, the project said there were a record 120,151 coronavirus patients currently hospitalized. 

This marks the 20th straight day the nation has hit a record high of current hospitalizations.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will now require a negative COVID-19 test for all air travelers coming to the United States from the United Kingdom in the wake of news about new strains of the virus being detected in the U.K.

Everyone arriving in the U.S. must have a negative PCR or antigen test from within 72 hours of departure, according to a statement from the CDC.

"The public health authorities in the United Kingdom recently announced the discovery of a new variant of SARS-CoV-2," the CDC wrote in its announcement. "Viruses constantly change through mutation, and preliminary analysis in the U.K. suggests that this new variant may be up to 70% more transmissible than previously circulating variants."

Passengers will have to provide written documentation of the negative test and airlines will be required to confirm the information, the CDC said. Airlines will have to refuse anyone without a negative test.

While the strain appears to be more transmissible, there's no evidence it is more deadly, or that the vaccines currently being rolled out won't be effective against it.

President Donald Trump, who is spending the Christmas holiday in Florida, will sign the executive order on Friday and it will go into effect on Monday.

Dozens of countries have largely banned travelers from the U.K., at least temporarily, including Canada, Mexico, Russia, China and India. The U.S. is one of a handful of countries that will require negative tests, including Greece and Spain.

Los Angeles County reported its highest number of new COVID-19 deaths for the second consecutive day Thursday.

The county reported 148 new deaths, surpassing Wednesday's record of 145. 

"A person now dies every 10 minutes in LA County from COVID-19," said Barbara Ferrer, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, as she urged people to follow public health directives.

There were 13,678 new cases reported, and nearly 6,500 people are currently hospitalized -- a record 20% of whom are in the intensive care unit, officials said.

The number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in the county has increased by more than 1,600 people in the past week, officials said.