Nearly 74% of eligible Americans have at least 1 COVID-19 vaccine dose

In 13 states, over 80% of the population has at least one dose, CDC data shows.

ByMorgan Winsor, Emily Shapiro, Ivan Pereira, Meredith Deliso, and Marlene Lenthang
Last Updated: September 13, 2021, 12:02 AM EDT

The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.

More than 655,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.6 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.

Just 62.7% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Latest headlines:

Here's how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Sep 07, 2021, 5:57 PM EDT

Idaho hospital officials plead with public to get vaccinated as they run out of beds

Idaho hospital officials are pleading for the public to get vaccinated and take COVID-19 warnings seriously after the state declared a crisis in its standards of care.

Kootenai Health, a northern Idaho hospital, currently has 113 patients with COVID-19, an increase from the 90 patients they had last week, officials said. Administrators had to set up 22 beds in a conference room to deal with the influx of patients.

Dr. Robert Scoggins the chief of staff at Kootenai Health, said the hospital was not built for a pandemic this size. Currently, 39 patients are in the intensive care units and 19 are on ventilators, all on high levels of oxygen, he said.

The hospital said it could see as many as 140 patients in the coming weeks.

"The message that I’d like to send out to people is that we’re near the limit that we can handle in this facility," Scoggins said in a news conference. "We’ve done a lot of things to expand our care to take care of more patients, but it keeps growing. If we had everyone in the community vaccinated, we would not be in this position.”

-ABC News' Flor Tolentino and Nicholas Kerr

Sep 07, 2021, 4:00 PM EDT

Louisiana hospital reports significant decline in number of patients

In hard-hit Louisiana, the Ochsner Health System is seeing a significant decline in COVID-19 patients, now down to 530 -- dropping by nearly 250 patients in the last week, hospital CEO and president Warner Thomas said.

But in the wake of deadly Hurricane Ida, releasing patients from hospitals has been difficult, as some patients have no homes to return to, he said.

-ABC News' Jamie Aranoff

Sep 07, 2021, 3:30 PM EDT

Oregon hospitals 'scrambling' with cases, hospitalizations 'hovering at or near pandemic highs'

Hospitals in Oregon are "scrambling" to stay afloat with cases and hospitalizations "hovering at or near pandemic highs," the state epidemiologist, Dean Sidelinger, said at COVID-19 briefing Tuesday.

Nurses at Asante Three Rivers Medical Center work in the Critical Care Unit in Grants Pass, Ore., Aug. 19, 2021.
Mike Zacchino/KDRV via AP

Oregon saw 16,252 new cases in its most recent weekly report – which is 13 times higher than the reported cases for the week ending July 4, Sidelinger said.

Hospitalizations and intensive care unit admissions are "alarmingly high" and hospitals are at a "saturation point" where they aren't "able to provide care to everyone arriving at their door," Sidelinger warned.

Sep 07, 2021, 3:08 PM EDT

Former NBA player on 10th day in ICU

Former Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Lakers player Cedric Ceballos, 52, tweeted that he's on his 10th day in the ICU battling COVID-19.

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