The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.
More than 643,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.5 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Just 61.7% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here's how the news was developing. All times Eastern.
Sep 03, 2021, 3:22 PM EDT
1 out of 8 Americans has tested positive for COVID-19, 1 out of 510 Americans has died from the virus
The country’s COVID death toll has risen to more than 643,000 and the number of cases stands at 39.5 million, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
That means 1 out of 8 Americans has tested positive for COVID-19 and 1 out of 510 Americans has died of the virus.
Heading into Labor Day weekend health experts are urging the public, especially the unvaccinated, to act responsibly as the delta variant continues to fuel infections.
Holidays have proven to be a catalyst for virus spread in the U.S.
Passengers wait at the concourse of Union Station Sept. 3, 2021 in Washington, D.C.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Last summer, shortly after Labor Day, the U.S. fell into its most significant viral surge of the pandemic.
Between the week following last Labor Day and Thanksgiving alone, the nation's daily case average surged by more than 400%.
-ABC News'Arielle Mitropoulos
Sep 03, 2021, 3:07 PM EDT
US administers highest number of vaccine doses since July
Over "1.40M doses reported administered over yesterday's total, including 550K newly vaccinated and 96K additional doses," White House COVID-19 data director Cyrus Shahpar said Friday.
That's the highest dose total since July 1, he said.
So far over 175 million people, or 61.9% of the eligible population, are fully vaccinated.
Sep 03, 2021, 9:49 AM EDT
CDC estimates 83% of US blood donors have been vaccinated or previously infected
A new study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that roughly 83% of blood donors in the nation have either been vaccinated against COVID-19 or were previously infected with the virus.
This, however, does not mean that more than 80% of Americans are immune from infection. That's because neither vaccination nor prior infection provides 100% protection -- antibodies are just one part of the overall immune response, and immunity wanes over time. The analysis also may overestimate the portion of people with antibodies because blood donors may be more likely to be vaccinated or have previously been infected.
The study, posted online Tuesday by JAMA Network Open, a monthly open access medical journal published by the American Medical Association, took a snapshot of the presence of antibodies from COVID-19 vaccination or prior infection in about 1.4 million donated blood samples from across the United States. The repeated cross-sectional analysis was conducted each month during July 2020 through May 2021, before delta became the predominant variant of the novel coronavirus in the U.S.
The study shows that the number of blood donors who tested positive for antibodies, indicating either vaccination or prior infection, has gone up over time, from 3.5% in July 2020 to 20.2% for infection-induced antibodies and 83.3% for both infection- and vaccine-induced antibodies in May 2021.
Being vaccinated offers better protection compared to prior infection, and it's recommended that people who have previously contracted COVID-19 should still get inoculated.
-ABC News' Katie Bosland and Sony Salzman
Sep 03, 2021, 8:46 AM EDT
EU to return millions of J&J doses it imported from Africa
The European Union will be returning some 20 million doses of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine that were imported from a plant in South Africa, and the shots filled and finished there will no longer leave the African continent.
African Union special envoy Strive Masiyiwa, who heads the regional bloc's COVID-19 Vaccine Acquisition Task Team, told reporters Thursday that the decision was made at a meeting last week between South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Vials of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine move along a conveyor belt at Aspen Pharmacare's plant in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, on March 29, 2021. Doses produced at the plant in South Africa will no longer be exported to Europe, the African Union's COVID-19 vaccine envoy announced on Sept. 2, 2021.
AP, File
Johnson & Johnson's South African partner, Aspen Pharmacare, has a contract to import the drug substance for the one-dose vaccine from the American pharmaceutical giant and then package them -- the so-called fill-and-finish process -- at its facility in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
"All the vaccines produced at Aspen will stay in Africa and will be distributed to Africa," Masiyiwa said at a press conference Thursday.
The decision came amid criticism of the arrangement, with the World Health Organisation's director-general, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is Ethiopian, saying last month that he was "stunned" that vaccines will be shipped from Africa to Europe. Just 3% of people in Africa, the world's second-largest, second-most populous continent, are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. In comparison, 57% of people are fully vaccinated in the European Union and 52% in the United States, according to the WHO.
