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, 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

Dec 24, 2021, 1:25 PM EST

Another outbreak reported on cruise ship

A COVID-19 outbreak has been reported on the South Florida-based cruise ship Carnival Freedom as Florida sees a massive surge in cases.

Carnival said a "small number" of people tested positive and are in isolation, but the cruise line did not disclose how many.

All passengers were vaccinated and tested ahead of the trip, Carnival said.

Carnival Freedom left Miami on Dec. 18 and stopped in Curacao on Dec. 21. Stops in Bonaire and Aruba were canceled but instead the ship will visit Amber Cove in the Dominican Republic on Friday, Carnival said.

The ship will return as planned to Miami on Dec. 26, Carnival said.

This is the third cruise ship outbreak this week. On Thursday, Royal Caribbean's Odyssey of the Seas ship reported 55 positive cases, days after setting sail from Florida. On Saturday, Royal Caribbean's arrived in Miami with at least 48 confirmed cases, according to The Miami Herald.

-ABC News' Will Gretsky, Mina Kaji

Dec 24, 2021, 12:44 PM EST

UK breaks case record for 3rd day in a row

The United Kingdom recorded 122,186 new cases in the last 24 hours, according to official government data, setting a new record high for the third day in a row.

The U.K. has recorded 707,306 cases in the last week -- a 48.2% jump from the previous week.

London has the highest proportion of cases for any region in England, with one in 20 people testing positive last week, according to new interim data from the U.K.'s Office for National Statistics.

-ABC News' Ibtissem Guenfoud