COVID-19 updates: No unemployment benefits for vaccine refusal in this state

The state just announced new COVID emergency plans.

ByJulia Jacobo, Ivan Pereira, Emily Shapiro, Morgan Winsor, and Meredith Deliso
Last Updated: September 27, 2021, 8:51 AM EDT

The United States has been facing a COVID-19 surge as the more contagious delta variant continues to spread.

More than 686,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.7 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The average number of daily deaths in the U.S. has risen about 20% in the last week, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The U.S. is continuing to sink on the list of global vaccination rates, currently ranking No. 46, according to data compiled by The Financial Times. Just 64.7% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the CDC.

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Here's how the news developed. All times Eastern.
Sep 20, 2021, 12:56 PM EDT

Booster shot recommendations still unclear, says acting FDA commissioner 

There is still uncertainty and questions to be answered regarding whether all Americans will be recommended to receive booster shots of the COVID-19 vaccine, said acting U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock.

Woodcock spoke with former senior White House COVID-19 response adviser Andy Slavitt on his podcast program “The Bubble” on Monday, raising questions on what the booster shots may or may not do and discussing any uncertainties that could have factored into the FDA’s decision to recommend boosters only for high-risk Americans and those over the age of 65.

Student Jasen Ortiz receives a dose of the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination clinic at California State University, Dominguez Hills in Carson, Calif., Sept. 16, 2021.
Caroline Brehman/EPA via Shutterstock

Right now, the FDA does not know enough about how an additional shot will impact transmissibility or about cellular immunity and whether T-cells are protected, among other factors, Woodcock said.

“Basically the FDA decision is, do the overall benefits outweigh the potential harms for any given vaccination and that’s how to proceed,” Woodcock said. “But obviously individuals benefit from not having a transmissible virus circulating around."

-ABC News’ Matthew Vann

Sep 20, 2021, 12:28 PM EDT

Average daily death count rises by 20%

In the wake of weeks of increasing COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, the U.S. is once again experiencing a surge in virus-related deaths.

The average number of deaths in the U.S. has risen to more than 1,500 per day, an increase of about 20% in the last week and nearly eight times the death average from two months ago, when the national average dropped to a near-low of 191 deaths reported each day, according to data from the CDC and the Department of Health & Human Services.

Twenty-two states and Washington, D.C. are seeing increasing case averages, while seven states are experiencing increasing hospital admissions, according to the HHS. 

However, overall hospitalizations in the U.S. are down, with about 10,000 fewer patients currently hospitalized compared to three weeks ago.

Alex Awad, RN is works inside the ICU with a covid patient at Adventist Health Glendale, Sept. 1, 2021, in Glendale, Calif.
Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times via Shutterstock

About 93,000 Americans are currently hospitalized. In recent weeks, there had been more than 103,000 patients receiving care across the country.

The drop is largely attributed to plummeting figures in Florida, where there are nearly 10,000 fewer patients hospitalized now, compared to a month ago.

The presence of the virus is shifting away from states in the deep South such as Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi, and further into other regions of the country that were not as hard hit in the first delta surge. 

Tennessee and West Virginia currently have the country's highest case rate, followed by Alaska, South Carolina, Wyoming, Montana and Kentucky, which all have case rates above 500 per 100,000 people.

-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos