COVID-19 updates: American Airlines to require employee vaccinations

At the beginning of the month, there were more than 104,000 patients hospitalized with COVID-19. As of Tuesday, there were 81,000 patients hospitalized -- a drop of about 23,000 patients, according to federal data.

Nearly 50% of those patients -- 11,000 -- are from Florida, where cases and hospitalizations have been plummeting since mid-August.

In recent weeks, however, 16 states have reported higher hospital admission metrics, according to federal data: Colorado, Delaware, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and West Virginia.

Five states -- Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky and Texas -- have ICU capacities of 10% or less, according to federal data.

Alaska has the country's highest case rate, followed by West Virginia, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, North Dakota and Kentucky.

-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said there's been a 45% increase in the daily vaccination rate since vaccine mandates were launched in July.

All city-run and private hospitals appear to be operating normally after health workers faced a midnight deadline to get vaccinated or risk losing their jobs. About 500 nurses for NYC Health + Hospitals are not at work.

NYC Health + Hospitals now has a 91% vaccination rate, up from 90% on Monday. City officials said about 5,000 employees were unvaccinated in the hospital system, down from more than 8,000 a week ago.

Northwell, New York state’s largest private hospital system, said it fired about two dozen "unvaccinated leaders," management level or above, for not getting vaccinated. 

“We are now beginning the process to exit the rest of our unvaccinated staff," Northwell said in a statement.

-ABC News' Aaron Katersky

A new preliminary CDC report of 306 people who received a third Pfizer dose found that side effects were similar to the second dose.

The most common side effects are fatigue, headache and a sore arm. These symptoms usually last one or two days.

The CDC will continue monitoring third doses for any potential new side effects or safety issues but says so far no "unexpected" patterns have been identified. 

-ABC News' Sony Salzman

Pfizer on Tuesday submitted data for the Phase 2/3 vaccine trial for 5- to 11-year-olds to the FDA.

Pfizer will make a formal request for authorization in the coming weeks.

The FDA will review the data and make a decision, possibly by the end of October. The timeline for authorization is not set in stone. 

-ABC News' Eric Strauss