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

Thousands of COVID-19 vaccine appointments were canceled after a snowstorm slammed the northeastern United States this week.

In Connecticut alone, some 10,000 appointments had to be rescheduled "as quickly as possible," as many vaccination clinics closed Monday, according to the state's health department. 

"Many clinics that were forced to close will be offering longer clinics hours and weekend hours to accommodate anyone who had their appointment cancelled yesterday or today," the Connecticut Department of Health said in a statement Tuesday. "We do not anticipate any issues with vaccine deliveries. Many will arrive today or tomorrow, which is in line with the vaccination plans of our providers."

In New Jersey, which saw some of the highest snowfalls, the state's six vaccine megasites were closed Monday and Tuesday. "We are still working to assess the storm's impact," Nancy Kearney, spokesperson for the New Jersey Department of Health, told ABC News on Tuesday.

Depending on the vaccination site, appointments were being rescheduled throughout the week, with some sites extending hours.

Most vaccination sites in New York City remained closed on Tuesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said, with plans to reopen on Wednesday and "catch up on appointments quickly." Among those needing to be rescheduled were 1,000 appointments across Monday and Tuesday at the city health department's vaccine clinic in Elmhurst, Queens.

MaineHealth, one of two major health providers operating vaccine clinics in the state, canceled appointments on Tuesday. The other provider -- Northern Light Health -- planned to continue, the Maine Center for Disease Control & Prevention said.

In Washington, D.C., which had just 2.6 inches of snowfall, there were very few requests for cancellations, according to the D.C. Department of Health.

The fallout from the snowstorm is less clear in Virginia and Pennsylvania, where the state health departments said they don't track counties' appointments or cancellations. 

ABC News' Laura Romero, Sasha Pezenik, Arielle Mitropoulos, Soo Rin Kim, Adia Robinson and Alisa Wiersema contributed to this report.

The number of people in Los Angeles County who have died from COVID-19 has surpassed 17,000.

On Tuesday, the county's public health department reported 205 new fatalities from the disease for a total of 17,057.

Los Angeles County has confirmed more COVID-19 cases than any other county in the United States -- and more than twice as many as Illinois' Cook County, the second-highest, according to data complied by Johns Hopkins University. 

Los Angeles County surpassed 10,000 COVID-19 deaths on Dec. 30 -- adding more than 7,000 new fatalities in a little over a month. By comparison, there were 7,000 COVID-19 deaths reported between February and October, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

Nearly half of all COVID-19 deaths in the county -- 8,405 -- were among Hispanic/Latino residents, according to the health department.

The county is continuing to make progress in reducing transmission, the health department said, with 3,763 new confirmed cases reported on Tuesday. Though that number is "substantially higher than the number of cases we saw in September," when there were fewer than 1,000 daily new cases, according to the health department.

ABC News' Bonnie McLean contributed to this report.

The U.S. government will begin shipping 1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines directly to select pharmacies next week, Jeff Zients, White House coordinator on COVID-19, announced Tuesday.

The doses will go to 6,500 pharmacies on Feb. 11 -- and are on top of the 10.5 million doses already scheduled to be delivered next week, Zients said. 

The participating pharmacies include:

-Walgreens (including Duane Reade)
-CVS Pharmacy, Inc. (including Long’s)
-Walmart, Inc. (including Sam’s Club)
-Rite Aid Corp.
-The Kroger Co. (including Kroger, Harris Teeter, Fred Meyer, Fry’s, Ralphs, King Soopers, Smiths, City Market, Dillons, Mariano’s, Pick-n-Save, Copps, Metro Market)
-Publix Super Markets, Inc.
-Costco Wholesale Corp.
-Albertsons Companies, Inc. (including Osco, Jewel-Osco, Albertsons, Albertsons Market, Safeway, Tom Thumb, Star Market, Shaw’s, Haggen, Acme, Randalls, Carrs, Market Street, United, Vons, Pavilions, Amigos, Lucky’s, Pak n Save, Sav-On)
-Hy-Vee, Inc.
-Meijer Inc.
-H-E-B, LP
-Retail Business Services, LLC (including Food Lion, Giant Food, The Giant Company, Hannaford Bros Co, Stop & Shop)
-Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. (including Winn-Dixie, Harveys, Fresco Y Mas)

ABC News' Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.

Twenty-six million people in the United States -- which is 7.8% of the country's population -- have received one or more doses of COVID-19 vaccines, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

COVID-19 cases and hospital admissions are continuing to decline nationally, while adult intensive care unit occupancy rates and deaths remain high in several states.

The country's seven-day average for new COVID-19 hospital admissions has dropped from a peak of 16,485 on Jan. 9 to 11,369 -- a 31% decline, the report said.

California, Texas, Georgia, Alabama and Oklahoma are the only states where ICU occupancies are above 85%, the report said.

ABC News’ Brian Hartman and Josh Margolin contributed to this report.