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

Scientists at Oxford University have identified a gene linked to an increased risk of respiratory failure from COVID-19 in people under 65, offering a new clue that could help scientists develop new treatments for the virus.

Researchers had previously identified a stretch of DNA that increased the risk, though the exact gene responsible, and why that was happening, was unknown. In a study published in Nature Genetics this week, scientists determined the gene associated with the increased risk.

According to the study, 60% of people with South Asian ancestry carry the high-risk genetic signal, which researchers said could partly explain the devastating impact of COVID-19 in India and in some UK communities. 

Other major risk factors for severe COVID-19 include medical conditions like obesity, asthma, diabetes and many other chronic diseases. 

-ABC News' Sony Salzman

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who tested positive for COVID-19 this week, said on the Pat McAfee Show Friday that his team knew he wasn't vaccinated and that he wasn't hiding it.

Rodgers said he's tested every morning and "every other protocol I followed to the T."

He said he's allergic to an ingredient in mRNA vaccines.

"I believe strongly in bodily autonomy and the ability to make choices for your body," he added.

He said he had some symptoms on Tuesday but is now feeling much better.

"I feel really good, and if this were the flu, there's no reason why I wouldn't play on Sunday," Rodgers said.

Dr. David Dowdy, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told ABC News in September that data so far at that point showed a severe allergy to the vaccine is extremely uncommon, experienced by less than one in 1 million people.

The CDC said: "If you have had a severe allergic reaction or an immediate allergic reaction -- even if it was not severe -- to any ingredient in an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, you should not get either of the currently available mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. ... If you aren’t able to get one type of COVID-19 vaccine because you are allergic to an ingredient in that vaccine, ask your doctor if you should get a different type of COVID-19 vaccine."

Dr. Jeff Linder, chief of general internal medicine and geriatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, told ABC News in September that research so far shows that those who have a severe allergic reaction are likely triggered by polyethylene glycol, or PEG, a component of the vaccines.

"An allergy to that is pretty rare," Linder added. "It would have to be documented, as a moderate or severe allergy, before I would consider giving a medical exemption."

The U.S. has seen a drop of nearly 60,000 COVID-19 patients in hospitals over the last two months. Many of those patients come from large Southern states, including Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi, according to federal data.

But nine states -- Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico and Utah -- have seen a major increase in hospital admissions over the last two weeks.

Daily infections are trending up in what the Department of Health and Human Services classifies as Region 1 (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont) and Region 2 (New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands), according to federal data.

-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos

A course of pills developed by Pfizer called PAXLOVID can slash the risk of being hospitalized or dying from COVID-19 by 89% if taken within three days of developing symptoms, according to results released Friday by the pharmaceutical company.

In a study of more than 1,200 COVID-19 patients with a higher risk of developing serious illness, people who took Pfizer's pills were far less likely to end up in the hospital compared to people who got placebo pills.

None of the people who got the real pills died, but 10 people who got placebo pills died, according to results summarized in a Pfizer press release.

Infectious disease experts cautioned these results are preliminary -- only described in a press release and not in a peer-reviewed medical journal -- but they represent another promising development in the search for effective and easy-to-administer COVID-19 pills.

-ABC News' Sony Salzman