New York health provider may have fraudulently obtained COVID-19 vaccine

The vaccine was then given to members of the public not yet eligible.

A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now infected more than 80.2 million people worldwide and killed over 1.7 million of them, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.


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LA County surpasses 9,000 deaths

Los Angeles County's Health Department reported that it has surpassed 9,000 coronavirus related deaths Tuesday.

The county recorded more than 1,000 deaths since Dec. 8, which is an average of nearly 73 COVID-19 deaths per day over the past two weeks, the Health Department said.

There are 5,866 people with COVID-19 currently hospitalized in Los Angeles, a record high, the Health Department said. About 20% of these patients are in the ICU, the Health Department said.


US COVID hospital patients reach spring peak: HHS

About 24% of inpatients in U.S. hospitals have the coronavirus, matching the peak set in April, according to an internal memo from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that was obtained by ABC News.

About 29% of hospitals across the country have more than 80% of their ICU beds filled, according to the memo.

HHS said 34% of ventilators in use are occupied by COVID-19 patients. The peak in April was 45%, according to the agency.

The memo also reported increasing trends with cases and deaths across the country between Dec. 16 and Dec. 22.

During that seven-day period, 1,656,411 new cases were confirmed, according to HHS. This was a 10.8% increase from the previous seven-day period.

There were 18,537 deaths recorded between Dec. 16 and Dec. 22, which was a 7.5% jump from the same period last week.

-ABC News' Josh Margolin contributed to this report.


AstraZeneca says its vaccine should be effective against new coronavirus variant

British drugmaker AstraZeneca told Reuters that its vaccine should be effective against the new COVID-19 variant linked to cases in the United Kingdom.

AstraZeneca said studies are underway to fully probe the impact of the mutation.

ABC News’ Sohel Uddin contributed to this report.


Supreme Court justices have vaccine access

Vaccines are being made available to all Supreme Court Justices, spokeswoman Kathy Arberg told ABC News.

Arberg did not say whether any justices have received the vaccine, citing health privacy laws.

The oldest justices are Stephen Breyer, 82, and Clarence Thomas, 72.

The National Security Council in recent days moved to extend vaccine access to top government officials to preserve continuity of government.

ABC News’ Devin Dwyer contributed to this report.


Fauci asks Americans to 'tone things down' for Christmas

Dr. Anthony Fauci told The Washington Post that his message for Christmas is to "tone things down," including gathering outdoors when possible, wearing a mask when not eating or drinking, and keeping gatherings to as few people as possible and within your household.

Fauci is not only celebrating Christmas on Thursday, but also his 80th birthday. And for the first time, Fauci won’t be with his daughters for the big day.

"This is the first time since the birth of my daughters, and they are now in their late 20s and early 30s, that we have not been together on Christmas Eve,” Fauci said. “I'm not alone in this feeling that kind of pain of separation from our loved ones.”

His milestone birthday was marked with a surprise Zoom party organized by his wife.

"I want to practice what I preach. I don't want to tell the country to do something that I'm not willing to do myself,” Fauci said. “I was just on a Zoom call with the girls ... I think I lost about a liter of fluid in tears, to be honest, with hearing their expressions of love and concern to me. But we ended it on a happy note because we know that sooner or later, very likely sooner, as we get into 2021 and things get better and vaccines help us, that this time next year we'll be back again with the Fauci family celebrating.”

ABC News’ Stephanie Ebbs contributed to this report.