Coronavirus updates: Herd immunity by fall 'ambitious,' says surgeon general nominee

In 44 states, the seven-day average of new cases dropped over 10%.

Last Updated: January 18, 2021, 11:26 AM EST

A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now infected more than 98.7 million people worldwide and killed over 2.1 million of them, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

Latest headlines:

Here's how the news developed this week. All times Eastern.
Jan 18, 2021, 11:26 AM EST

California calls for pausing use of Moderna vaccine lot following 'possible allergic reactions'

California's top epidemiologist has recommended pausing the administration of COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna's lot 041L20A due to "possible allergic reactions" that are under investigation.

"A higher-than-usual number of possible allergic reactions were reported with a specific lot of Moderna vaccine administered at one community vaccination clinic," Dr. Erica Pan, state epidemiologist for the California Department of Public Health, said in a statement late Sunday night. "Fewer than 10 individuals required medical attention over the span of 24 hours. Out of an extreme abundance of caution and also recognizing the extremely limited supply of vaccine, we are recommending that providers use other available vaccine inventory and pause the administration of vaccines from Moderna Lot 041L20A until the investigation by the CDC, FDA, Moderna and the state is complete."

The California Department of Health said all of the affected individuals appeared to be experiencing "a possible severe allergic reaction during the standard observation period," which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says some people have experienced when receiving a COVID-19 vaccine.

A health care worker receives a dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego, California, on Dec. 22, 2020.
Bing Guan/Reuters

More than 330,000 doses from that specific lot have been distributed to 287 providers across the state, with the shipments arriving between Jan. 5 and 12, according to the California Department of Public Health, which said it has not been notified of any other cluster or individual events related to this lot.

When asked for comment, a spokesperson for Moderna told ABC News: "Moderna acknowledges receiving a report from the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) that a number of individuals at one vaccination center in San Diego were treated for possible allergic reactions after vaccination from one lot of Moderna’s COVID-19 Vaccine. The company is fully cooperating with CDPH in investigating these reported adverse events. Consistent with the statement from CDPH, at this point Moderna is unaware of comparable adverse events from other vaccination centers which may have administered vaccines from the same lot."

ABC News' Sony Salzman contributed to this report.

Jan 18, 2021, 8:15 AM EST

London to pilot 24/7 vaccination sites

Before the end of the month, London will begin piloting COVID-19 vaccination sites that will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, according to Nadhim Zahawi, the United Kingdom's minister for COVID-19 vaccine deployment.

England's National Health Service (NHS) will trial the round-the-clock vaccination sites at hospitals in the British capital.

"And we'll look at how we expand that," Zahawi told Sky News in an interview Monday.

A security guard holds a sign at Blackburn Cathedral, which is being used as a mass COVID-19 vaccination center, in Blackburn, England, on Jan. 18, 2021.
Jon Super/AP

Zahawi said the key with 24-hour vaccination sites is to ensure vulnerable populations, such as people over 80 and others deemed high-risk, are still being targeted.

"At the moment, the challenge is obviously supply -- limited supply vaccine that needs to get into the arms of the most vulnerable four cohorts. So the targeting has to be really, really precise so that we can protect them by mid-February," he added.

"So if you just want to chase volume, chase speed and not accuracy, 24 hours works really well," he continued. "If you want to chase both accuracy, protecting the most vulnerable and of course speed, then you want to do what we're doing which is primary care networks, hospitals, large vaccination centers and of course pharmacies."

A health worker fills a syringe with a dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine at Cullimore Chemist in Edgware, a suburb in north London, on Jan. 14, 2021.
Paul Childs/Reuters

As of Saturday, 3,857,266 people in the U.K. have received the first of two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to the latest data published on the U.K. government's website.

The U.K. Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has approved three COVID-19 vaccines for use to date -- one developed by U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, a second developed by England's University of Oxford and British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, and a third developed by American biotechnology firm Moderna.

The U.K. -- an island nation of 66 million people made up of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland -- has confirmed more than 3.3 million cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, including over 89,000 deaths. There were 38,598 new cases and 671 additional deaths confirmed over the past 24 hours, according to the latest data.

Jan 18, 2021, 7:10 AM EST

France expands vaccination campaign to 75 and older, anyone deemed high-risk

People aged 75 and over will be eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine in France starting Monday.

Up until now, only residents of nursing homes and medical staff aged 50 and over were able to be vaccinated against the disease.

France is also expanding its vaccination campaign to include anyone with high-risk conditions, such as cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy or transplant patients.

A woman receives the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination center in Bayonne, southwestern France, on Jan. 18, 2021.
Bob Edme/AP

The move comes after the country's death toll from COVID-19 topped 70,000 over the weekend.

France has confirmed more than 2.9 million cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, including at least 70,283 deaths, according to the latest data from the country's public health agency. The Western European nation has the sixth-highest tally of diagnosed cases in the world, after the United States, India, Brazil, Russia and the United Kingdom, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

So far, the European Medicines Agency has approved two COVID-19 vaccines for use in the European Union -- one developed by U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, and another developed by American biotechnology company Moderna.

ABC News' Ibtissem Guenfoud contributed to this report.

Jan 18, 2021, 6:24 AM EST

Oklahoma school district stops basketball games due to 'super-spreader event'

A public school district in Oklahoma City canceled basketball games on Friday night after witnessing what it called a "super-spreader event."

Millwood Public Schools said it "made the decision to put kids and families first," pulling its basketball players off the court during games against Community Christian School in Norman, about 20 miles south of downtown Oklahoma City. The school district posted photos on Facebook showing a crowded gymnasium with few people wearing masks or maintaining distances.

"We will NOT subject our kids and families to a super-spreader event just to compete," Millwood Public Schools wrote in the Facebook post Friday night.

PHOTO: Millwood Public Schools posted this photo on Facebook, showing a basketball game at Community Christian School in Norman, Oklahoma, on Jan. 15, 2020.
Millwood Public Schools posted this photo on Facebook, showing a basketball game at Community Christian School in Norman, Oklahoma, on Jan. 15, 2020. The school district said it decided to cancel its games against Community Christian School due to COVID-19 fears and what it called a "super-spreader event."
Millwood Public Schools/Facebook

Community Christian School's athletics director, Mat McIntosh, told Oklahoma City ABC affiliate KOCO-TV that the photos shared on social media showed the home side, which "was three-fourths full." He said that they "would never put any students at risk."

"During [Friday] night’s game when the decision was made to pull the players off the court, we were caught off guard," McIntosh said in a statement. "We hated that. It has been our desire to keep things as normal as possible. We have policies in place for COVID during athletic events. As a school, we have listened to the governor’s statement to stay at 50% capacity. We feel even [Friday] night, our overall capacity was under 50%."

PHOTO: Millwood Public Schools posted this photo on Facebook, showing a basketball game at Community Christian School in Norman, Oklahoma, on Jan. 15, 2020.
Millwood Public Schools posted this photo on Facebook, showing a basketball game at Community Christian School in Norman, Oklahoma, on Jan. 15, 2020. The school district said it decided to cancel its games against Community Christian School due to COVID-19 fears and what it called a "super-spreader event."
Millwood Public Schools/Facebook

Related Topics