COVID-19 updates: US cases down nearly 25%

Daily COVID-19-related deaths -- which are a lagging indicator -- are steadily increasing to their highest point in nearly one year, according to federal data.

The U.S. is reporting an average of more than 2,100 new fatalities each day, surpassing the average from last summer's delta surge. However, the nation's death toll remains significantly lower than last winter when the U.S. peaked at about 3,400 deaths per day.

Since Thanksgiving, there have been nearly 84,000 confirmed deaths.

Meanwhile, the U.S. case rate is steadily falling, down by 6% in the last week -- although case rates still remain higher than at any other point of the pandemic, according to federal data.

Out of the 3,220 counties in the U.S., just eight counties are not reporting high transmission, according to federal data.

Utah is leading the nation in new cases per capita, followed by Alaska and New Mexico.

-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos

Although last week Dr. Anthony Fauci said he expected vaccine data for children ages 2 to 4 to come before the FDA within a month, on Wednesday he said, “we’ll just have to wait and see.”

“Bottom line, I can't give you a timetable on that,” Fauci said at Wednesday's White House COVID-19 briefing.

He said the system was working as it should to be prudent with a vaccine for children, even if it was slower than many parents want.

Fauci said the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Disease has issued $43 million in research grants to support the development of a "universal" vaccine, but he stressed that a new shot isn't coming any day soon.

“I don’t want anyone to think that pan coronavirus vaccines are literally around the corner in a month or two,” Fauci said.

“Do not wait to receive your primary vaccine regimen,” Fauci said. “If you are vaccinated, please get your booster if you are eligible.”

Current vaccines dramatically reduce the risk of hospitalization and severe illness, even against new variants like omicron. Scientists said it could take months, even years, to find a vaccine that works equally well against multiple coronavirus strains.

-ABC News' Cheyenne Haslett, Sony Salzman

The U.S. is shipping nearly 3.2 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine to Bangladesh and nearly 4.7 million doses to Pakistan via COVAX, Jeff Zients, the White House CVODI-19 response coordinator, announced Wednesday.

The U.S. has now shared 400 million vaccine doses globally, Zients said.

-ABC News' Molly Nagle

COVID-19-related hospital admissions in the U.S. are expected to fall in the weeks to come, the first time the nation would see a decline in months, according to forecast models used by the CDC.

Estimates suggest between 4,900 and 27,800 Americans could be admitted to the hospital each day by Feb. 18.

Deaths from COVID-19 are expected to remain stable or have an uncertain trend. Estimates suggest about 33,000 more Americans could die from COVID-19 over the next two weeks.

-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos