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

According to the CDC, 46% of Texans have been fully vaccinated.

ByEmily Shapiro, Ivan Pereira, Meredith Deliso, and Marlene Lenthang
Last Updated: August 16, 2021, 12:25 AM EDT

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

More than 620,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 and over 4.3 million people have died worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

Just 59.1% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Latest headlines:

Here's how the news is developing today. All times Eastern.
Aug 13, 2021, 2:57 PM EDT

Louisiana hospitalizations at highest point of pandemic

Hard-hit Louisiana has 2,907 COVID-19 patients in hospitals -- more than any point of the pandemic so far, the state's Department of Health said Friday.

Medical professionals prepare to enter a room where a patients are being treated for COVID-19 at the Ochsner Medical Center in Jefferson Parish, La, Aug. 10, 2021.
Kathleen Flynn/Reuters

Louisiana's Ochsner Health said they have 1,063 hospitalized COVID-19 patients in their system, exceeding all previous surges. Of those patients, 88.99% are unvaccinated, officials said.

Gov. John Bel Edwards said 399 patients in the state are on ventilators.

Fifty-seven people died of COVID-19 in Louisiana in the last 24 hours, the health department said.

The governor warned Friday that Louisiana isn't near the peak of this surge and hospital leaders are more alarmed now than at any point in the pandemic.

"We are really close to the breaking point," Edwards said.

Aug 13, 2021, 1:46 PM EDT

Feds send 'fatality management trailers' to Texas

Federal officials are deploying extra resources to COVID-19 hot spots, including sending five "fatality management trailers" to Texas, according to a federal planning document obtained by ABC News.

Oklahoma was set to receive 100 ventilators on Thursday, according to the planning document, while Mississippi has requested enough medical personnel to staff more than 1,000 beds.

Aug 13, 2021, 11:49 AM EDT

Chicago requires school employees to be vaccinated

Chicago Public Schools, the nation's third-largest school district, is requiring all employees to be vaccinated.

Chicago Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot, center, Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice K. Jackson, right and ward commissioner Alderman William Burnett, left, observe a classroom during their tour, Feb. 11, 2021, at the William H. Brown Elementary School.
Shafkat Anowar/AP

Seventy-eight percent of district employees were already fully vaccinated, partially vaccinated or had a vaccination scheduled as of June, the district said.

"For the social and emotional well-being of our young people, they need to be in school, and the vaccine adds another layer of protection to our plan to safely re-open schools," the city's department of public health commissioner, Allison Arwady, said in a statement.

Chicago's school year starts on Aug. 30. 

-ABC News' Whitney Lloyd

Aug 13, 2021, 8:03 AM EDT

Former acting CDC head talks next steps for booster shots

Dr. Richard Besser, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and former acting director of the CDC, told "Good Morning America" that he expects booster shots will "be available to people with immune disorders very quickly."

The FDA announced late Thursday that immunocompromised Americans – such as cancer patients, transplant recipients, people with HIV and people on immunosuppressant drugs -- will be able to get a third shot of Pfizer or Moderna.

But Besser stressed, "I think about this less as a booster shot" and more of "a recognition that for certain people with immune problems, two doses wasn’t enough" and "the third dose is necessary for them to get the same high level of protection that the rest of people do."

The CDC panel is expected to vote to recommend the third dose when it meets Friday at 11 a.m. and CDC Director Rochelle Walensky will likely sign off after a Friday afternoon vote.