Nearly 600 patients wait for hospital beds in Houston following surge in COVID cases

The largest county in Texas is set to file a lawsuit challenging the governor’s mask mandate ban.

The commissioner’s court of Harris County, which encompasses the city of Houston, had the county attorney file a lawsuit challenging Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order that prohibits local governments in the state from requiring masks, ABC’s Houston station KTRK reported.

“First responders and school leaders are speaking out and standing up as Delta ravages our community. We have their back,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo wrote on Twitter. “Protecting the community during an emergency is a duty, not an option for government leaders.”

“It’s the job of local officials to protect our students, our vulnerable, our neighbors,” said Harris County Attorney Christian D. Menefee. “But [Abbott] has banned us from doing so during a pandemic. Tonight Commissioners Court authorized my office to take legal action against the governor’s overreach. Enough is enough.”

Hawaii Gov. David Ige announced new capacity restrictions on businesses and limits on social gatherings Tuesday amid a spike in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.

Effective immediately, bars, restaurants and gyms are limited to 50% capacity. Additionally, social gatherings are limited to 25 people outdoors and 10 people indoors.

COVID-19 case counts doubled every seven to 10 days in July, and there have been record daily highs of over 600 cases in recent days, Ige said. Hospitalizations have also increased from 48 a month ago to 219 currently.

"We need to take action, and we need to take action now,” Ige said during a press briefing.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory panel is expected to meet later this week to discuss the possibility of COVID-19 vaccine booster shots for people who are severely immunocompromised.

The meeting of the CDC’s ACIP panel -- scheduled for Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. -- will be closely watched as the nation awaits a decision by federal regulators on whether to authorize a booster shot for certain vulnerable groups.

If the Food and Drug Administration greenlights boosters, the ACIP panel would have to make its own recommendation on who should get the shot and what factors they might want to consider. Those recommendations are typically adopted by the CDC as nationwide public health guidance.

During a meeting last month, ACIP members agreed an extra shot probably does help protect immunocompromised people but that more research was needed*.*

-ABC News' Anne Flaherty

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 1 million people who have received the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine have gone back for an unauthorized third booster shot. 

Florida is among the states reporting the highest number of people opting for a booster shot, followed by Ohio, California, Illinois and Tennessee.

The estimated 1.1 million, included in an internal CDC briefing document reviewed by ABC News, likely is an undercount because although it counts Moderna and Pfizer shot recipients it ignores people who may have received the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine and got another shot.

It’s also unclear whether people who received a third shot did so under the direction of a doctor. The Food and Drug Administration hasn’t authorized a third shot to boost immunity, although there are reports of some physicians encouraging severely immunocompromised patients to do so.

Boosters for the immunocompromised may be recommended by the FDA within weeks.

-ABC News' Anne Flaherty, Eric Strauss