COVID-19 updates: 70% of American adults fully vaccinated

More than 80% of adults have at least one dose, CDC says.

ByMorgan Winsor, Emily Shapiro, Ivan Pereira, and Meredith Deliso
Last Updated: November 8, 2021, 5:52 AM EST

As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 752,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

Just 68% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Latest headlines:

Here's how the news developed. All times Eastern.
Nov 04, 2021, 1:55 PM EDT

Walensky addresses vaccine mandate

As Dr. Anthony Fauci and CDC director Rochelle Walensky testified Thursday before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, they spoke to the vaccine mandate that'll soon be in effect for businesses with 100 or more employees.

Walensky said, "We know the most disruptive thing in our workforce is to have a COVID outbreak and to have workers in that workforce come down with COVID infection, severe disease, and in some cases, death."

"Vaccination, as we've seen, decreases your risk of infection by sixfold, decreases your risk of hospitalization and death by tenfold -- even during this delta surge. So there's absolutely a public health priority to get people vaccinated and to continue the important prevention and mitigation strategies including masking to keep them safe," she said.

-ABC News' Cheyenne Haslett

Nov 04, 2021, 11:51 AM EDT

NYC kids can get $100 for vaccine at city-run site

New York City kids ages 5 to 11 can get $100 for getting vaccinated at a city-run site, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced.

Ashley Peterson, left, comforts her daughter, Ella Seigler, 5, before she is inoculated with first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children, at NYC Health + Hospitals Harlem Hospital, Nov. 4, 2021, in New York.
Jeenah Moon/AP

Nov 04, 2021, 10:00 AM EDT

UK authorizes Merck's COVID treatment 

The United Kingdom has authorized Merck's COVID-19 treatment, becoming the first country in the world to do so.

Capsules of the antiviral pill Molnupiravir are pictured in a handout photo released by Merck, Oct. 18, 2021. On Nov. 4, Britain approved the use of Merck's antiviral pill to treat patients suffering from mild to moderate COVID-19.
Merck & Co./AFP via Getty Images

Clinical studies suggest Merck's COVID-19 pill, molnupiravir, may reduce the ability of the virus to multiply in the body, thereby preventing hospitalization or death in patients with mild to moderate COVID-19.

The UK's Medicines + Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said the antiviral drug was found to be safe and effective following a stringent review of the available evidence.

-ABC News' Christine Theodorou

Nov 04, 2021, 8:45 AM EDT

Majority of US workers to fall under vaccine mandate on Jan. 4

Nearly 100 million U.S. workers will be required to get the COVID vaccine by Jan. 4, with some workers allowed to test weekly instead, under sweeping federal rules released Thursday by the Biden administration that identifies COVID-19 as an occupational hazard.

The regulations are aimed at health care workers and businesses with 100 or more employees, covering two-thirds of the nation’s workforce. Businesses that don’t comply could be fined $14,000 per infraction and hospitals could lose access to Medicare and Medicaid dollars.

Biden’s plan also gives federal contractors an extra month to comply, sliding a previous Dec. 8 deadline set by the administration. Federal workers are still required to be vaccinated by Nov. 22.

-ABC News' Anne Flaherty

Related Topics