COVID-19 updates: LA has highest daily death total since April

There are over 4,300 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Los Angeles County.

ByMorgan Winsor, Emily Shapiro, Ivan Pereira, and Meredith Deliso
Last Updated: January 17, 2022, 12:30 AM EST

As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.5 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 849,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

About 62.9% 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.
Jan 11, 2022, 9:20 AM EST

United cuts flights, 3,000 employees out with COVID-19

About 3,000 United Airlines workers currently have COVID-19, though none are in the hospital, the airline said.

United Airlines planes sit on the runway at Newark Liberty International Airport on Nov. 30, 2021 in Newark, New Jersey.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

On one recent day, one-third of all United Airlines employees at Newark Airport called in sick, the airline said.

United CEO Scott Kirby said the airline is cutting its near-term flight schedule to ensure they have enough staffing.

Kirby added that, prior to the vaccine requirement, United had one employee die each week from COVID-19.

-ABC News' Sam Sweeney

Jan 11, 2022, 8:35 AM EST

3 cities, 20 million people under lockdown in China

Some 20 million people across three Chinese cities are now under lockdown due to COVID-19 outbreaks.

Anyang, home to 5.5 million people, was the latest city to lock down its residents after discovering two cases of the fast-spreading omicron variant. Another 13 million people are under lock down in Xi'ian and 1.1 million in Yuzhou, with both cities still battling the highly contagious delta variant. Neither has reported any cases of omicron.

PHOTO: A woman is tested for COVID-19 in Beijing, China, on Jan. 10, 2022.
A woman is tested for COVID-19 in Beijing, China, on Jan. 10, 2022. With less than a month to go until the start of 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, authorities are on high alert to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and the highly contagious omicron variant.
Andrea Verdelli/Getty Images

Meanwhile, restrictions have been imposed in the port city of Tianjin, about 80 miles southeast of Beijing, which is to host the 2022 Winter Olympics next month. The city's 14 million people are being tested for COVID-19 after two locally transmitted cases of omicron were detected over the weekend -- the first for mainland China.

-ABC News' Karson Yiu

Jan 11, 2022, 7:58 AM EST

Mexico's president reveals he has COVID-19 for 2nd time

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has been reinfected with COVID-19.

Lopez Obrador, 68, who is fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and received a booster shot in December, revealed Monday evening that he has tested positive for the virus a second time.

"Although the symptoms are mild, I will remain in isolation and will only do office work and communicate virtually until I get through it," the president wrote on Twitter. "In the meantime, the interior secretary, Adan Augusto Lopez Hernandez, will take over for me at press conferences and other events."

PHOTO: This handout picture released by Mexico's presidency shows Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador during a press conference at the Palacio Nacional in Mexico City on Jan. 10, 2022.
This handout picture released by Mexico's presidency shows Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador during a press conference at the Palacio Nacional in Mexico City on Jan. 10, 2022. Lopez Obrador later announced that he had contracted COVID-19 for a second time and was experiencing mild symptoms.
Mexican Presidency/AFP via Getty Images

The announcement came after two of the president's cabinet secretaries announced that they had tested positive for COVID-19 in recent days. Lopez Obrador attended a press conference earlier Monday without wearing a face mask.

The president, who has been accused of downplaying the highly contagious omicron variant as "a little COVID," contracted the virus for the first time and recovered in early 2021.

Jan 11, 2022, 7:00 AM EST

American Red Cross declares 'dire' blood shortage as omicron surges

The American Red Cross said Tuesday that it is facing its worst blood shortage in over a decade.

"While some types of medical care can wait, others can't," Dr. Pampee Young, chief medical officer of the American Red Cross, said in a statement. "Hospitals are still seeing accident victims, cancer patients, those with blood disorders like sickle cell disease, and individuals who are seriously ill who all need blood transfusions to live even as Omicron cases surge across the country."

An American Red Cross worker is pictured at the scene of a fire at an apartment building in the Bronx borough of New York City, New York, on January 10, 2022.
Carlo Allegri/Reuters

The American Red Cross, which supplies about 40% of the nation's blood, said it saw donor numbers fall as the delta variant of COVID-19 spread in August. The number of blood donors has fallen by about 10% since the beginning of the pandemic. That trend continued as omicron spread, according to the organization.

"We’re doing everything we can to increase blood donations to ensure every patient can receive medical treatments without delay, but we cannot do it without more donors," Young said. "We need the help of the American people."

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