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.

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, 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.

Aug 13, 2021, 5:27 AM EDT

Alabama children's hospital sees rise in patients

Children's of Alabama reported a significant increase in the number of COVID-19 positive patients being treated at the hospital in recent weeks.

As of Thursday, the hospital said it is treating 22 COVID-19 positive patients, five of whom are on ventilators.

The hospital said in January, at the height of the last surge, their highest number of patients was 13.

"There are three proven ways to slow the spread of this highly transmissible strain of the virus: Vaccination for everyone 12 and up, masking, especially when indoors, and social distancing," the hospital wrote in a Facebook statement.