COVID-19 updates: US has 1st day since November with fewer than 100K new cases

South Africa's coronavirus czar lamented unequal COVID-19 vaccine distribution between rich and poor nations, calling it "disheartening," in an interview Monday with ABC News. "The part of it that is most distressing is the way in which vaccines are being unevenly distributed," said Salim Abdool Karim, chairman of the South African Ministerial Advisory Committee on COVID-19.

No single country can vaccinate its own population and think that it can stay safe while new virus variants emerge in parts of the world without vaccines, he explained. "That simply is a recipe for disaster."

Karim's comments follow similar criticism from South African President Cyril Ramaphosa last week, who accused wealthy nations of "hoarding" excess vaccine doses that they did not immediately need.

ABC News' James Longman contributed to this report.

Two new reports from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention detail who received COVID-19 vaccines during the first month of the country's mass immunization program. Of the 13 million Americans who got at least one dose between Dec. 14 and Jan. 14, 63% were women and 55% were aged 55 or older, according to the reports, which were released Monday.

The new data revealed a troubling trend in nursing home settings. While nearly 78% of residents got at least one vaccine dose, only 38% of staff members got vaccinated, which suggests barriers to vaccination for staff that "need to be overcome," according to the CDC.

The racial breakdown of who got vaccinated is less clear. Since multiple jurisdictions aren't reporting a breakdown by race, there's missing data on about half of the people who were vaccinated. Based on the data that's currently available, 60% of those people who received vaccines were white, 12% were Hispanic and 5% were Black, the CDC reported.

As the vaccination rollout continues, "it is critical to ensure efficient and equitable administration to persons in each successive vaccine priority category, especially those at highest risk for infection and severe health outcomes," the CDC said.

ABC News' Sony Salzman contributed to this report.

January marked the nation's deadliest month of the coronavirus pandemic, with a death total approximately four times the reported number of COVID-19 deaths recorded by the U.S. in any month between June and October 2020, according to an ABC News' analysis of data compiled by The COVID Tracking Project, a volunteer-run effort to track the U.S. outbreak.

In total, the virus has claimed the lives of over 440,000 people in the U.S., which translates to about 1 in every 747 Americans, according to an ABC News analysis of data collected by Johns Hopkins University.

The U.S. death toll is approximately 147 times the total lives lost during the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and is around 65% of the total number of deaths that were recorded nationwide during the 1918 influenza pandemic.

Although the country's seven-day average of daily COVID-19 deaths appears to be plateauing, the U.S. is still reporting an average of just over 3,100 new deaths from the disease per day, according to The COVID Tracking Project data.

More than 6 million COVID-19 infections were diagnosed nationwide during the month of January, making it the country's second-worst month of the pandemic in terms of confirmed cases, data shows.

Over the weekend, the country's cumulative tally of confirmed cases surpassed 26 million, which signifies that one in every 12 Americans has now tested positive for COVID-19. However, the national seven-day average of daily COVID-19 cases has dropped by 32.3%, the lowest average the country has seen since mid-November, according to The COVID Tracking Project data.

COVID-19 hospitalizations also continue to decline rapidly across the country. The number of COVID-19 patients currently hospitalized nationwide is the lowest since late November.

In total, more than 800,000 people have been hospitalized with COVID-19 in the U.S. since the start of the pandemic, according to The COVID Tracking Project data.

ABC News' Brian Hartman and Arielle Mitropoulos contributed to this report.

The European Union's law enforcement agency, Europol, is warning member nations to be on the lookout for fake COVID-19 test certificates.

An increasing number of countries in the EU and beyond are requiring travelers to present proof of a negative COVID-19 test to be allowed entry when coming from a high-risk area. In an early warning notification issued Monday, Europol said several cases have emerged of fraudulent test certificates being sold to travelers, including the arrest of a forgery ring selling negative test results to passengers at France's Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. The amount charged for the fake documents ranged between 150 to 300 euros ($181-362).

Fraudsters were also caught in the United Kingdom selling bogus test documents for 100 pounds ($137), faking the name of a genuine laboratory on the false certificates, according to Europol.

"The detection of fake COVID-19 negative test certificates confirms that criminals -- be it organised crime groups or individual opportunistic scammers -- seize profitable opportunities once they arise," the agency said in the notification. "As long as travel restrictions remain in place due to the COVID-19 situation, it is highly likely that production and sales of fake test certificates will prevail. Given the widespread technological means available, in the form of high-quality printers and different software, fraudsters are able to produce high-quality counterfeit, forged or fake documents."