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 22, 2021, 10:16 AM EDT

States with low vaccination rates have much higher new death tolls

With more than 1,500 coronavirus-related deaths reported each day, the U.S. is now averaging the highest number of daily deaths in nearly seven months.

States with the lowest vaccination numbers are experiencing weekly death rates nearly four times higher than the most vaccinated states, according to an ABC News analysis of federal data.

Cars wait in line at a COVID-19 drive-through testing and vaccination site in Marietta, Ga., Aug. 30, 2021.
Elijah Nouvelage/Reuters

PHOTO: Aimee Fletcher and her daughter, of Spring Hill, Tenn., protest outside the Williamson County School Board during a meeting to discuss COVID protocols, Aug. 26, 2021, as 485 students and 95 staff were in isolation with a confirmed case of COVID-19. — Aimee Fletcher and her daughter Sara, of Spring Hill, Tenn., protest outside the Williamson County School Board during a meeting to discuss COVID protocols, Aug. 26, 2021, as 485 students and 95 staff were in isolation with a confirmed case of COVID-19.
Ray Di Pietro/Shutterstock

The 10 states with the lowest vaccination rates, where under 45% of residents are fully vaccinated, averaged more than 7.39 deaths per capita each day. The 10 states with the highest vaccination rates, where more than 62% of residents are vaccinated, averaged about 1.89 deaths per capita.

The lowest vaccination rates are in West Virginia, Wyoming, Idaho, Alabama, Mississippi, North Dakota, Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee and Arkansas.

A COVID-19 testing sign is seen in front of Tiger Stadium before the game between Central Michigan and LSU. Sept. 18, 2021, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Sean Gardner/Getty Images

The highest vaccination rates are in Vermont, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Maryland, New York, Washington and New Mexico.

-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos

Sep 22, 2021, 8:34 AM EDT

In hard-hit Alabama patients are 'dying at an alarming rate'

Alabama is experiencing a near record-breaking surge in COVID-19 deaths.

“We are seeing a decrease in the number of patients that are in the hospital, but unfortunately, it's not because all of them are getting better and going home to their families... these patients are dying,” Dr. Kierstin Kennedy, chief of hospital medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital, told ABC News Tuesday.

In July, there were only six COVID-19 patients in the UAB hospital, but within four weeks, the number skyrocketed over 100, according to Kennedy.

This latest wave of patients is much younger, primarily consisting of unvaccinated patients, Kennedy said.

“These patients are as sick if not sicker than elderly patients. They're staying in the hospital longer, and they're dying at an alarming rate,” Kennedy said. “It's unlike anything that I've seen.”

Alabama State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris said Friday, "2020 is going to be the first year that we know of in the history of our state where we actually had more deaths than births -- our state literally shrunk in 2020."

Across Alabama, more than 97% of ICU beds are in use, according to federal data.

Just 41.6% of the state's total population is fully vaccinated.

-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos

Sep 22, 2021, 7:01 AM EDT

UK and South Korea agree to swap COVID-19 vaccine doses

The United Kingdom and South Korea have agreed to share COVID-19 vaccine doses to mutually support the rollout of shots in each nation.

The U.K. will send 1 million of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses to South Korea to enhance their vaccination program, with the first batch of shots expected to arrive in the coming weeks. South Korea will return the same volume by the end of the year, as the U.K. presses ahead with its vaccine rollout and booster shot program over the winter months, according to a press release from the U.K. Department of Health and Social Care.

A nurse prepares a dose of the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination center in Derby, England, on Sept. 20, 2021.
Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images

The swapping initiative, similar to the arrangement between the U.K. and Australia, will help South Korea toward hitting its target of administering a second dose to 70% of its population by the end of October.

"The Republic of Korea is a strategic partner for the UK and the sharing of one million vaccines benefits both countries as we help build resistance against COVID-19 and save lives," British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a statement Tuesday.

The deal will have no impact on the U.K.'s ongoing vaccine rollout or booster shot program, nor will it effect the doses the country has already pledged to give to the global vaccine-sharing initiative COVAX. Almost 90% of people over the age of 16 in the U.K. are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses are not immediately required in the U.K. due to robust supply management, according to the U.K. Department of Health and Social Care.

Sep 22, 2021, 6:21 AM EDT

Brazil's health minister tests positive for COVID-19 at UNGA

Brazilian Minister of Health Marcelo Queiroga said Tuesday that he has tested positive for COVID-19 while in New York City for the United Nations General Assembly.