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COVID-19 live updates: Judge rules governor stop banning mask mandates in schools

Ten Florida school districts have adopted mask mandates for students this month.

ByEmily Shapiro, Ivan Pereira, Morgan Winsor, Erin Schumaker, Meredith Deliso, and Marlene Lenthang
Last Updated: August 26, 2021, 4:07 PM EDT

The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.

More than 634,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.4 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 60.8% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Here's how the news is developing today. All times Eastern.
Aug 26, 2021, 4:07 PM EDT

US reporting more than 800 deaths per day, marking highest average in 5 months

The U.S. is continuing to experience its steepest increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations since the winter of 2020, with more than 101,000 patients now in hospitals, according to federal data. This marks the highest number of patients in seven months.

Eight weeks ago, there were under 12,000 patients receiving care.

The country's daily death average has increased to more than 800 deaths per day. This is a 317% jump in the last seven weeks and marks the highest average since mid-March 2021.

-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos

Aug 26, 2021, 2:41 PM EDT

Texas sending 2,500 medical workers to support overwhelmed hospitals

Texas' Department of State Health Services is sending 2,500 medical workers to support the state's overwhelmed health care facilities, including hospitals and nursing homes, Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday.

Dr. Michael Nguyen tends to a patient in a hallway at the Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital in Houston, Aug. 18, 2021.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images, FILE

This follows the 5,600 medical workers, mostly nurses and respiratory therapists, previously dispatched to the state's hospitals.

Texas' Department of State Health Services is also offering more medical equipment including ventilators and hospital beds, the governor said.

Texas had 13,928 COVID-19 patients in hospitals as of Wednesday evening, nearing the state's record of 14,218 patients in January.

Aug 26, 2021, 2:17 PM EDT

Delta employee vaccinations see massive jump

The number of Delta employees going to the airline's on-site clinic for first vaccine doses has increased more than fivefold Thursday, just 24 hours after the company said it was raising health insurance premiums for unvaccinated employees.

Delta said Wednesday health insurance premiums for unvaccinated employees would go up by $200 per month beginning Nov. 1 to cover COVID-19 costs like potential hospitalization, which the airline says has cost it $40,000 per person on average.

Unvaccinated employees will also have to wear masks indoors and be required to take a weekly COVID test beginning Sept. 12.

-ABC News' Sam Sweeney

Aug 26, 2021, 11:24 AM EDT

New mask, vaccine mandates announced in Illinois

In Illinois, masks will be required indoors regardless of vaccination status beginning on Monday, Gov. JB Pritzker announced Thursday.

A woman wears a face mask as she walks on the sidewalk in Chicago, Aug. 13, 2021.
Nam Y. Huh/AP, FILE

The governor also said that vaccines will be required for higher education personnel and students, health care workers and P-12 teachers and staff. The unvaccinated must get tested at least once per week.

"This is a pandemic of the unvaccinated," the governor said, adding that 95% of deaths in the state are among the unvaccinated.

Illinois is now seeing 220 patients admitted to hospitals each day, the highest since May.

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