COVID-19 live updates: City sees fourfold increase in pediatric hospitalizations

The shift reflects the spread of the omicron variant.

ByEmily Shapiro, Ivan Pereira, Meredith Deliso, and Mary Kekatos
Last Updated: December 27, 2021, 2:21 AM EST

As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.3 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 816,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

About 61.7% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Latest headlines:

Here's how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Dec 20, 2021, 12:40 PM EST

Omicron will present 'very challenging few weeks' for New York City

The omicron surge will bring "a very challenging few weeks" to New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday.

"We are going to see a surge of cases in a few weeks, then we think we will see it trail off," the mayor said.

New York City is adding 23 new city-run testing sites this week to respond to skyrocketing demand, the mayor said. That will bring the number of city-run sites to 112.

-ABC News' Aaron Katersky, Will McDuffie

Dec 20, 2021, 12:01 PM EST

Rafael Nadal tests positive

Tennis star Rafael Nadal tweeted that he tested positive for COVID-19 when he arrived in Spain after playing a tournament in Abu Dhabi.

Dec 20, 2021, 11:38 AM EST

UK cases jump 60% in 1 week

The United Kingdom recorded 91,743 cases over the last 24 hours, according to government numbers.

That brings the U.K.'s weekly total to 584,688 – a 60.8% increase from the previous week.

Paramedics works inside an ambulance parked outside the Royal London hospital in London, Dec. 20, 2021.
Tolga Akmen/AFP via Getty Images

Paramedics unload a patient from the back of an ambulance parked outside the Royal London hospital in London, Dec. 20, 2021.
Tolga Akmen/AFP via Getty Images

Government ministers are holding a cabinet meeting to discuss potential new measures to curb the spread.

-ABC News' Guy Davies

Dec 20, 2021, 11:04 AM EST

Michigan hospitals strained: 'We are tired and we are disheartened'

Eighteen states have an ICU capacity of 15% or less. Michigan in particular has been struggling through its latest COVID-19 surge for nearly three months.

Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit is seeing an increased number of ventilators in use and the "overwhelming majority" of patients on ventilators are unvaccinated, Dr. Jayna Gardner-Gray told ABC News.

Sarah Rauner, a chief nurse practitioner at Beaumont Health, told ABC News, "I have seen and witnessed things in the last two years that have forever changed me."

"I remember thinking to myself when we were going through the third surge, 'What are we going to do if there's a fourth?' And here we are in the middle of a fourth surge in the holidays. I am very concerned," she said. "We are burnt out. We are tired and we are disheartened. So much of what we see on a daily basis is preventable. However, we are still living this every day."

Rauner has one ask of all Americans: "Get your family vaccinated."

-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos