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 24, 2021, 5:10 PM EST

Harris tests negative after staff exposure

Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff tested negative via antigen tests Friday morning after Harris' close contact with a staffer who tested positive Wednesday, according to a White House official.

Harris also tested negative on a PCR test, White House officials said Friday afternoon.

The staffer was with Harris throughout the day on Tuesday, Harris' spokeswoman, Symone Sanders, said in a Wednesday statement.

The staffer tested negative on Monday, Tuesday and "every day last week," and then tested positive on Wednesday morning, according to Sanders.

Harris tested negative on Wednesday and will be tested again on Monday, Sanders said.

-ABC News' Ben Gittleson

Dec 24, 2021, 2:47 PM EST

Los Angeles' positivity rate rising quickly

Los Angeles started the week with a 2% positivity rate and is ending the week nearing a 10% positivity rate.

People with umbrellas wait in line for a free COVID-19 test outside Lincoln Park Recreation Center in Los Angeles, Dec. 23, 2021.
Ringo H.w. Chiu/AP

The city reported 9,988 new COVID-19 cases on Friday. On Monday, there were just 3,258 cases.

Dec 24, 2021, 2:28 PM EST

New York sees record-smashing 44,431 cases in 1 day

New York state has set yet another daily case record with 44,431 new positive COVID-19 cases, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Friday. This comes as New Yorkers seek testing in record numbers ahead of the holidays.

This breaks Thursday's record high of 38,835 cases.

Friday's case count is double the positive case count from last Friday (21,908). But testing has increased in the last week, jumping from 290,000 to 360,000.

For comparison, three months ago, New York saw just 5,288 people test positive for COVID-19 statewide.

The governor on Friday also announced new return-to-work guidelines for critical workers who test positive. If a critical worker has tested positive but is vaccinated, they can return to work after five days if they are asymptomatic or no longer have symptoms. 

In New York state 95% of adults have had at least one vaccine dose, Hochul said, but she stressed that one dose isn't enough.

-ABC News' Josh Hoyos, Alexandra Faul, Will McDuffie

Dec 24, 2021, 2:14 PM EST

France, Italy hit record highs

France reported 94,124 new daily cases Friday, the highest since the start of the pandemic, according to France's national public health agency Santé Publique France. Of those cases, 1,980 are omicron.

Patients wait to be tested for the novel coronavirus Covid-19 in Paris, Dec. 23, 2021.
Stephane De Sakutin/AFP via Getty Images

Italy also hit a record high of 50,599 new cases in the last 24 hours, breaking the record set one day earlier with 44,595 cases.

-ABC News' Ibtissem Guenfoud