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 21, 2021, 10:34 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 21, 2021, 8:33 AM EDT

2nd dose of J&J vaccine results in stronger protection, company says

A second dose of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine given two months after the first leads to stronger protection, the company said Tuesday.

National Guard Spc. Noah Vulpi, left, administers the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine to Ira Young Jr. during a vaccination clinic held by the National Guard in Odessa, Texas., May 27, 2021.
Eli Hartman/Odessa American via AP, FILE

Compared to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, Johnson & Johnson's single-shot vaccine always had slightly lower efficacy. Peak efficacy from the two-shot Pfizer and Moderna vaccines was 95% and 94%, respectively, against symptomatic illness, compared to 72% with J&J's one shot. But two Johnson & Johnson shots, given two months apart, resulted in a similarly high effectiveness level: 94% protection against any symptomatic infection in the U.S. and 100% against severe disease.

J&J chief scientific officer Dr. Paul Stoffels said the single-shot vaccine still provides "strong and long-lasting protection" while also being "easy to use, distribute and administer."

"At the same time," Stoffels said, "we now have generated evidence that a booster shot further increases protection against COVID-19 and is expected to extend the duration of protection significantly."

-ABC News' Sony Salzman

Sep 20, 2021, 5:39 PM EDT

US records 1.1 million pediatric COVID-19 cases over past 5 weeks

The U.S. reported more than 225,000 child COVID-19 cases, marking the fourth consecutive week with over 200,000 new pediatric cases reported, according to a newly released weekly report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.

In the last five weeks alone, the country has reported more than 1.1 million pediatric cases, according to the organizations.

"The weekly figure is now about 26 times higher than it was in June, when just 8,400 pediatric cases were reported over the span of a week," the organizations wrote in their report.

The South accounted for about half --110,000-- of last week's pediatric cases, according to the report.

The organizations added that more than 2,200 children are hospitalized with a confirmed or suspected COVID-19 infection.

-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos

Sep 20, 2021, 4:45 PM EDT

US deaths surpass 675,000, more than 1918 flu pandemic

The U.S. surpassed 675,000 coronavirus deaths Monday, according to Johns Hopkins University's Coronavirus Resource Center.

The 675,446 deaths since the pandemic began in March of 2020 now surpasses the deaths from the 1918 pandemic.

White flags are seen on the National Mall near the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., Sept. 19, 2021.
Daniel Slim/AFP via Getty Images

Although the seven-day average of new deaths is nowhere near the 3,600 deaths recorded in mid-January, the average has been increasing since mid-July, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The seven-day average of new deaths has gone from 191 on July 10 to 1,353 on Sept. 19, the CDC data showed.

The majority of recent deaths has been among unvaccinated Americans, according to the data.

Sep 20, 2021, 3:27 PM EDT

NYC updates school testing, quarantine guidelines

One week after public schools opened for the new school year, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced new changes to student testing.

Starting Sept. 27, students in all grade levels will be tested weekly instead of bi-weekly. In addition, any student who is in a classroom with a positive case won't have to quarantine if they were masked and three feet distant, according to the mayor.

"We've been looking at these two issues over the last few weeks. We looked at it in light of the data from the first week of school, we decided to make both of these changes simultaneously, and they do complement each other," de Blasio said during his daily news conference.

The United Federation of Teachers had pushed the mayor to switch to weekly testing. All teachers must have at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by Sept. 27, as part of the city's mandate for education employees.