COVID-19 updates: More than 10,000 new deaths reported in US in 1 week

An FDA advisory panel will convene in open session Friday to debate the latest booster shot data submitted by Pfizer, and following a non-binding vote, the FDA is expected to formally amend its current vaccine approval for Pfizer.

Opening remarks are set for 8:30 a.m. ET. That's followed by introductions by the FDA, presentations from CDC representatives, discussion of booster protection and a presentation from Pfizer.

After a public hearing portion in the afternoon and a Q&A on the Pfizer and FDA presentations, the committee is expected to debate the issue for about two hours. A vote is expected at about 4:45 p.m. ET.

Next week, the matter heads to the CDC’s independent advisory panel whose members will discuss who should get a booster and when.

-ABC News' Sasha Pezenik

Booster shots are now being administered in England.

Eligible people must be six months out from their last shot and include: adults ages 50 and over; people in residential care homes; frontline health care workers; social workers; people who are immunocompromised; and caregivers for the immunocompromised.

About 4.5 million people will be eligible for a booster in the next few weeks.

-ABC News' Christine Theodorou

Pope Francis said Wednesday he found it "ironic" that a cardinal who was not vaccinated against COVID-19 had been hospitalized with the virus.

Speaking to reporters on his plane while returning to Rome after visiting Hungary and Slovakia, Francis discussed the hesitancy against COVID-19 vaccines and how it has divided people.

"It's strange because humanity has a friendly relationship with vaccines," the pope said. "As children, we got them for measles, for other things, for polio. All the children were vaccinated, and no one said anything. Then this happened."

"Even in the College of Cardinals, there are some anti-vaxxers," he added, "and one of them, poor man, is in hospital with the virus. But life is ironic."

Although Francis didn't identify the man by name, it appeared he was referring to American Cardinal Raymond Burke, one of the Catholic church's most outspoken conservatives who eschewed the COVID-19 vaccine and spent days on a ventilator after contracting the virus in August.

Francis noted that everyone in the Vatican, "except for a small group," has been vaccinated against COVID-19.

China said Thursday that it has vaccinated more than 1 billion people against COVID-19.

According to the Chinese National Health Commission, 2.16 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in the country so far, fully vaccinating 1.01 billion people. That accounts for more than 70% of China's population.

China's COVID-19 vaccination rate is now among the highest in the world, above the United States and Europe. The inoculation drive, however, only used domestically-made vaccines, including Sinopharm and Sinovac Biotech, both of which were approved for emergency use by the World Health Organization but have faced growing scrutiny that they may not be very effective at curbing the spread of the virus, particularly the new variants.

Despite chasing zero cases with the strictest of suppression methods, China still suffers the occasional COVID-19 outbreak. A fresh outbreak of the more contagious delta variant has been growing in the southeastern province of Fujian. Chinese authorities said the source of the outbreak there was a father who returned from Singapore in early August and transmitted the virus to his child after quarantining. The father didn't test positive for COVID-19 until 38 days after he had returned to China.

Painting the threat of the virus coming in from abroad, China has no plans to reopen its borders for the foreseeable future. Even the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing in February Feb is expected to be held within a very strict bubble that will make the recent Tokyo Games seem lax.

-ABC News' Karson Yiu