Coronavirus updates: US reports nearly 300,000 new cases in all-time high
A staggering 299,087 new cases were confirmed over the past 24 hours.
A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now infected more than 84.6 million people worldwide and killed over 1.8 million of them, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Latest headlines:
CDC predicts 424,000 deaths by Jan. 23
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its forecast for coronavirus-related deaths over the next four weeks.
The agency, which used 33 models, predicted 12,400 to 24,300 new deaths will likely be reported between now and the week ending Jan. 23.
"The national ensemble predicts that a total of 383,000 to 424,000 COVID-19 deaths will be reported by this date," the CDC said.
By comparison, the population of New Orleans is 391,000, according to U.S. Census data.
ABC News' Brian Reiferson contributed to this report.
Limited number of Buffalo Bills fans can attend playoff game
A limited number of Buffalo Bills fans -- 6,700 people -- will be permitted to attend the team’s home playoff game in January as part of a larger experiment to see if businesses can safely reopen, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced.
Each fan would have to test negative before attending and follow strict policies on distancing and face coverings. "No tailgating, no mass gatherings," Cuomo said.
Postgame, there will be contact tracing, Cuomo said.
The state health department will closely monitor if positive cases emerge among fans who attended the game.
This game will serve as a pilot to try to see how businesses can “smartly and safely reopen,” Cuomo said.
ABC News’ Aaron Katersky contributed to this report.
Feds acknowledge pace of vaccines isn't what they hoped, predict escalation in coming weeks
Operation Warp Speed's Moncef Slaoui and Gen. Gus Perna acknowledged for the first time Wednesday that vaccination numbers aren’t high as they hoped, but they anticipate an escalation in the coming weeks.
Officials said 14 million doses have been shipped to states and another six million would arrive next week.
So far, only 2 million shots have been logged in a federal system.
“We agree that the number is lower than what we hoped for,” Slaoui told reporters.
“We would like to invite anybody who has energy to participate and help us further improve administration of the vaccine to come to the table, with your sleeves up and come up and help us with specific ideas,” Slaoui said.
Perna said the administration was working through the details but that he wasn’t concerned. He said he expects that between Jan. 8 and Jan. 15, the number of shots given will ramp up dramatically as more pharmacies come on board.
"Essentially it’s been just 12 days. There’s two holidays. There’s been three major snow storms,” Perna said. “There is everybody working through, you know, how to do the notification, how to make sure we’re administering it the right way, how to ensure that it stays in accordance with the cold chain… And here’s what I have confidence in: Every day everybody gets better. And I believe that uptake will increase.”
ABC News’ Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.
Hospitalizations have jumped 36% this month
There are 124,686 Americans currently hospitalized with COVID-19 -- a national record. In the last month, the number of patients hospitalized has increased by 36%, according to ABC News’ analysis of data compiled by the COVID Tracking Project.
Over 5.8 million COVID-19 cases have been reported so far in December -- approximately 2.4 million cases more than November, which was the second worst month on record.
California is leading the nation with the highest average of daily cases per 100,000 people in the last seven days, followed by Arizona, Tennessee and Delaware, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos contributed to this report.