COVID-19 updates: American Airlines to require employee vaccinations

NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar spoke with ABC News Live Wednesday about the vaccination status among NBA players.

The league, which has not implemented a mandate among team members, said 90% of all players are vaccinated. However, some of the holdouts include stars like Bradley Beal and Andrew Wiggins.

Abdul-Jabbar told ABC News' Phil Lipof that he believes the players refusing to get vaccinated are being "very irresponsible."

"If you care for your family or the people that you work with, and have to spend a lot of time with, you will get vaccinated," Abdul-Jabbar said.

He added that this should especially be true among Black athletes, noting that COVID-19 has affected Black Americans the most, so promoting vaccinations is important for the community.

"It's like an extension of Black Lives Matter," Abdul-Jabbar said. "Most of the people who are dying are black people. Most of the people who are losing their jobs and being negatively affected in other ways economically are Black Americans. So the Black community, who has a great communication going on with their athletes, they need to get wise to this and Black athletes can do a lot to to change the template."

Producers for Aladdin on Broadway canceled Wednesday's show after several people in the production tested positive for COVID-19.

Disney Theatrical Productions announced the cancellation just 30 minutes before the start of the show, saying “Through our rigorous testing protocols, breakthrough COVID-19 cases have been detected within the company of ‘Aladdin’ at the New Amsterdam Theater.”

The production resumed on Tuesday after shutting down for nearly a year and a half. The Broadway League issued a vaccine mandate for all of its casts and crews before productions resumed this month.

Disney Theatrical Productions is a part of the Walt Disney Company, the parent company of ABC News.

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice offered yet another urgent plea Wednesday for residents to get vaccinated, as the state continues to struggle through its COVID-19 latest surge.

"There's absolutely every reason to believe we're right in the eye of the storm. We're right at the peak of the surge right now," Justice said in a news conference. "We're going to lose a bunch more people."

Only 48.1% of West Virginians have had one dose of the vaccine as of Wednesday, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

ICU capacity is currently at a record high, with nearly 300 patients receiving critical care, according to Justice.

"We can't have all these people just die in vain and have this just continue to go and continue to go," he said.

Justice explained that although he does not believe in mandates, all he can "possibly do with a good conscience," is to continue to urge everyone in the community to get vaccinated.

-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos

New York City's vaccine mandate for city workers survived another challenge in court Wednesday.

New York State Supreme Court Justice Laurence Love wrote that the argument made by the New York City Municipal Labor Committee --which represents several unions-- contending that the city's order "violates employees’ individual bodily integrity and right to refuse medical treatment," is without merit.

"Public health concerns far outweigh the concerns of a few," the judge wrote in the 11-page ruling.

-ABC News' Will Gretsky