Coronavirus updates: State reports over 49,000 new cases, 468 new deaths

South Africa announced Thursday that it will import 1.5 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by England's University of Oxford and British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca.

South African Health Minister Dr. Zwelini Mkhize said the country will be receiving 1 million doses later this month, followed by 500,000 doses in February. Mkhize said the healthy ministry has purchased the doses directly from the Serum Institute of India, which has a licensing agreement with AstraZeneca to manufacture the vaccine.

Meanwhile, South Africa's drug regulatory body is "fine-tuning and aligning all the regulations processes to ensure that there are no unnecessary delays or regulatory impediments to activate this rollout," Mkhize said.

The country's health care workers in both public and private hospitals -- an estimated 1.25 million people -- will have first priority in getting the vaccine, according to Mkhize.

The announcement comes as South Africa grapples with a new, more contagious variant of the novel coronavirus. Some hospitals are reportedly already at capacity amid the recent surge in infections.

South Africa has reported more than 1.1 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, including at least 30,524 deaths, according to the latest data from the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The country of 60 million people has by far the highest number of diagnosed infections in Africa.

Los Angeles County reported 258 new deaths and 11,841 new cases on Wednesday.

County Public Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer said Wednesday, “Today, I am more troubled than ever before.”

During the summer, 1 in every 10 people tested were positive; now, 1 in every 4 or 5 people are testing positive, she said.

The rate of transmission this month is almost double that of December and Los Angeles County hospitals are admitting more patients than they can discharge, she said.

Some paramedics told ABC News they’ve seen as many as 22 ambulances stacked up in hospital parking lots this week. They said they felt helpless waiting.

“They signed up to take care of people, not wait with people in agony,” EMT Bill Weston told ABC News.

“This is by far the worst disaster I've ever been involved in,” he said.

ABC News' Jenna Harrison, Kaylee Hartung and Cammeron Parrish contributed to this report.

About 787,000 workers lost their jobs and filed for unemployment insurance last week, the U.S. Department of Labor said Thursday.

This is a decrease of 3,000 compared to last week’s figure -- but the weekly tally still remains highly elevated by historical standards. 

The DOL also said that more than 19 million people were still receiving some form of government unemployment benefits as of the week ending Dec. 19. For the comparable week in 2019, that figure was 1.8 million.  

The latest data shows the ongoing pain to the labor market brought on by the pandemic-induced recession. It also comes some nine months since the virus arrived in the U.S., but as cases and hospitalizations continue to reach record highs across the country. 

Thursday’s initial unemployment claims data also comes a day ahead of Friday’s highly anticipated job’s report from the DOL, which is set to provide more details on the economy and the road towards a recovery. 

ABC News’ Catherine Thorbecke contributed to this report.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga declared a state of emergency in Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures on Thursday, amid soaring COVID-19 infections and a growing death toll.

A state of emergency declaration gives the governors of those respective regions the authority to ask residents for cooperation in efforts to curb the spread of the virus. There are currently no legal ramifications for non-compliance.

"This global infection has surpassed our imagination and it has turned into a harsh struggle," Suga said Thursday evening in televised remarks. "However, I believe that we can overcome the situation. In order to do so, once again, we ask people to have a limited lifestyle."

Under the state of emergency, which takes immediate effect and will last for one month, Suga said governors will ask residents to refrain from dining out and to stay home after 8 p.m. unless for essential reasons. They will also ask companies to decrease the number of employees commuting to work by 70%.

Suga said bars and restaurants will be asked to stop serving alcohol by 7 p.m. and to close by 8 p.m. Governors may disclose the name of the businesses that don't comply, while those that do will be given 1.8 million Japanese yen ($17,000) per month.

Spectator events will be limited to an audience of 5,000 people. Schools will not be asked to close, according to Suga.

"If we do that, I believe we can overcome the COVID crisis," he said.

Suga's predecessor, Shinzo Abe, declared a nationwide state of emergency relatively early in the pandemic in April, which lasted for a month. At that time, residents were asked to reduce person-to-person contact by 80% and to practice "jishuku," or "self-restraint," by staying at home and closing non-essential businesses.

The move comes after days of record-high numbers of newly confirmed COVID-19 infections. The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare confirmed 5,946 new cases on Wednesday, bringing the country's cumulative total to 257,196 confirmed cases with at least 3,790 deaths.

ABC News' Anthony Trotter contributed to this report.