A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now infected more than 90 million people worldwide and killed over 1.9 million of them, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Here's how the news developed this week. All times Eastern.
Jan 04, 2021, 9:47 AM EST
New York becomes 4th US state to surpass 1 million total cases
More than 1 million people in New York state have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
The Empire State surpassed the grim milestone over the weekend, becoming only the fourth U.S. state to do so. To date, New York has confirmed a total of 1,023,897 COVID-19 cases, including at least 38,415 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins data.
California has the highest total of any U.S. state by far with more than 2.4 million cases, followed by Texas's 1.8 million and Florida's 1.3 million.
People line up outside a COVID-19 testing site in the Brooklyn borough of New York City on Jan. 2, 2021.
Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images
Jan 04, 2021, 9:40 AM EST
Schools reopen in Kenya after nearly 10 months
Schools fully reopened across Kenya on Monday for the first time in nearly 10 months.
The Kenyan government shut down schools nationwide in March, after the East African nation confirmed its first COVID-19 case. The government reopened schools for students in grades 4, 8 and 12 who were preparing for final exams. The remainder -- some 16 million schoolchildren - were expected to return to classrooms Monday.
A teacher in a classroom filled with pupils wearing face masks during the reopening of schools at the Daima Primary school in Nairobi, Kenya, Jan. 4, 2021.
Daniel Irungu/EPA via Shutterstock
The government has asked school officials and teachers to implement public health measures, such as social distancing and hygiene guidelines, to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Still, teachers have expressed concern over the safety of their students and themselves amid the pandemic. Wilson Sossion, secretary-general of the Kenya National Union of Teachers, told BBC's "Newsday" that the level of preparation on COVID-19 safety measures ahead of the reopening was "quite inadequate."
"When you give such directives to schools and you don't give them funding," Sossion said, "how are they expected to implement?"
Pupils wearing face masks revising in groups in an open field during the reopening of schools at the Daima Primary school in Nairobi, Kenya, Jan. 4, 2021.
Daniel Irungu/EPA via Shutterstock
Kenya, a country of 51 million people, has reported more than 96,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, including at least 1,685 deaths, according to the latest data from the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Jan 04, 2021, 8:23 AM EST
TSA screens over 3.3 million travelers during holiday weekend
More than 3.3 million people went through airport security checkpoints across the United States over the holiday weekend, despite public health guidance against traveling due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said it screened 805,990 individuals at checkpoints nationwide on Friday, New Year's Day, along with 1,192,881 on Saturday and 1,327,289 on Sunday. Sunday's total was the highest checkpoint volume that TSA has recorded since the pandemic began.
Travelers wear face masks to protect against the novel coronavirus while passing through the south security checkpoint in the main terminal of Denver International Airport in Denver, Colorado, on Dec. 31, 2020.
David Zalubowski/AP
That means the total for the entire holiday travel period -- beginning Dec. 18 and ending Sunday -- was more than 17.7 million people, which is far higher than what analysts had been forecasting.
ABC News' Gio Benitez, Alexandra Faul and Sam Sweeney contributed to this report.
Jan 04, 2021, 7:59 AM EST
HHS secretary 'surprised there haven't been more glitches' in vaccine rollout
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar said the nationwide distribution of COVID-19 vaccines is still on track and that he's "surprised there haven't been more glitches."
"We said our goal was to have 20 million first doses available in the month of December. Those are available, but there's a lag between doses being available, them being ordered by the providers in the states, shipping and then eventual vaccination, especially when you have Christmas and New Year's in the middle," Azar told ABC News' Robin Roberts in an interview Monday on "Good Morning America."
"This is just -- it's normal," he added. "This is the largest vaccination campaign in the history of the United States. I'm actually surprised there haven't been more glitches that we've seen so far."
Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar appears on "Good Morning America," Jan. 4, 2021.
ABC News
Azar's comments come after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published an update on the country's vaccine rollout, showing that 13,071,925 doses have been distributed and 4,225,756 have been administered as of 9 a.m. ET on Jan. 2. Some states have faced delays or other issues with their rollouts, with people being turned away at vaccination sites.
But Azar said there's been "a very rapid uptick" in just the last 72 hours of reporting, with an additional 1.5 million vaccine doses administered.
"I'm very hopeful that we're going to see a continued rapid uptick in that," he said. "Our states are on it, w're working with our governors, we're providing them help."
