COVID-19 updates: American Airlines to require employee vaccinations

Novant Health announced Monday that it terminated around 175 staff members at its medical centers who failed to comply with its vaccine mandate.

Novant's system includes 15 hospitals, 800 clinics and hundreds of outpatient facilities throughout North Carolina.

Last week, 375 members were unvaccinated -- despite a Sept. 15 deadline for the mandate -- and suspended, the hospital said.

Since then, 200 members have received at least one shot and 99% of Novant's 35,000 team members are compliant, according to the hospital's administrators.

Employees who received an mRNA vaccine have until Oct. 15 to get their second dose, Novant said in a statement.

-ABC News' Brian Hartman

A pharmacy owner in Puerto Rico has pleaded guilty to federal charges after 24 children between the ages of 7 to 11 were given a full dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. 

The pharmacy, located 10 miles northeast of Ponce, administered the vaccines between May 28 and June 22, the Justice Department announced Monday. 

Owner and president of Farmacia Gabriela, Lizz Ann Banchs, has pleaded guilty to participating in a felony conspiracy to convert government property and to commit health care fraud. 

Banchs faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000, as well as three years of supervised release. 

-ABC News’ Joshua Hoyos

Children in Chile ages 6 to 11 began getting the first dose of the the COVID-19 vaccine on Monday, according to the country’s health ministry. 

On Sept. 6, Chile’s Public Health Institute recommended that children 6 and older receive China’s Sinovac vaccine.

Schools are required to provide parents and guardians with data on the vaccine being used. Parents then must provide written consent for their child to receive the shot. 

In the country, 87% of teens ages 16 to 17 have been vaccinated while 81% of 14- to 15-year-olds have been vaccinated. Fifty-seven percent of 12- to 13-year-olds have received the vaccine.

-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou

Pediatric infection rates of COVID-19 remain at “exponentially high” levels, with nearly 207,000 positive cases among children last week, according to the weekly report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association. 

Last week marked the fifth consecutive week of more than 200,000 reported pediatric cases, the report said. Children accounted for 26.7% of the reported COVID-19 cases last week.

More than 5.7 million children have tested positive for the virus since the onset of the pandemic. In the last five weeks, the U.S. reported more than 1.1 million pediatric cases. 

Since the first students returned to the classroom in late July, more than 1.6 million children have tested positive for the virus. 

Overall hospitalization rates among children are starting to slightly decline, despite the high number of new cases.

Even with the decline, the weekly number of cases is still 24 times higher than it was in June, when just 8,400 cases were reported over the span of a week. 

Regionally, the South continues to report the highest number of pediatric cases, accounting for about 88,000 of last week’s pediatric cases. The Northeast reported the fewest number of cases among children, but infections are still at their highest point in five months for the region. 

-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos