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 reaches record level of hospitalizations
Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer updated residents on the jump in coronavirus cases and said that hospitals have seen a huge jump in numbers.
There are currently 5,709 currently hospitalized for COVID-19, which is the highest number of patients since the pandemic began, according to the health data. Roughly 21% of patients are in the Intensive Care Unit and 15% are on ventilators, Ferrer said.
She added that from Nov. 9 to Dec. 17, the average daily hospitalizations of people with COVID-19 increased by 481%.
"If we don’t change how we’re going to celebrate the winter holidays, we’ll experience a surge, on top of a surge, on top of a surge," Ferrer said.
The county recorded 56 new deaths, 11,271 new cases and has a 14% cumulative positivity rate.
-ABC News' Cammeron Parrish contributed to this report.
Virgin Atlantic says it will require UK travelers to test negative before departure
A representative from Virgin Atlantic told ABC News it will implement a new protocol for United Kingdom travelers that mandates a COVID-19 test before boarding flights to the U.S.
"With the health and safety of our customers and people always our number one priority, we will require all travelers to present evidence of a negative LAMP or PCR COVID-19 test, taken up to 72 hours prior to departure, including on-site at the airport," the representative said in a statement.
The new requirement goes into effect on Dec. 24.
The change comes after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called on international airlines to test passengers for the coronavirus before getting on a plane to the U.S. A variant of the virus has been discovered in Britain and prompted several countries to suspend travel from the U.K.
-ABC News' Nate Luna contributed to this report.
California stay-at-home orders will likely be extended
California’s stay-at-home orders -- currently in effect for 98% of the state’s population -- will likely be extended, Gov. Gavin Newsom said.
A three-week stay-at-home order was issued in a region of California when it fell below 15% intensive care unit capacity. The stay-at-home order can only be lifted when ICU capacity returns to above 15%.
Two of the five regions, Southern California and San Joaquin Valley, currently have 0% capacity.
The Bay Area and the Greater Sacramento area also under a stay-at-home order. Northern California is the state’s only region not under the order.
California has 17,190 coronavirus patients in hospitals -- a 63% increase in the last two weeks.
California has deployed 607 state workers to 75 health care facilities in 24 counties that were requesting extra assistance. Newsom said he has asked the Department of Defense for 10 teams of 20 health care workers, and he is also asking a team that’s been working in Imperial County to extend its stay until the end of January.
ABC News’ Matt Fuhrman contributed to this report.
Biden gets vaccinated
President-elect Joe Biden was administered the Pfizer vaccine on Monday afternoon at ChristianaCare Hospital in Delaware.
Dr. Jill Biden was vaccinated earlier on Monday.
Dr. Anthony Fauci is expected to get vaccinated Tuesday, according to the National Institutes of Health.
President Donald Trump has not been vaccinated because doctors wanted him to wait after he received monoclonal antibody treatment following his COVID-19 diagnoses, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams said Monday.
"His doctors, who I've spoken with, wanted people to understand that if you have recently been given monoclonal antibodies, the FDA says you should wait several weeks before you get vaccinated,” Adams told reporters. “So the reason the president has not gotten vaccinated yet is because his doctors have advised him to wait."
ABC News' Ben Gittleson contributed to this report.
New strain of COVID-19 driving South Africa's resurgence
South Africa is seeing COVID-19 cases rise as the new strain of the virus spreads though the country.
According to health officials, the new variant, known as 501.V2, is responsible for new cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
"It is still very early but at this stage, the preliminary data suggests the virus that is now dominating in the second wave is spreading faster than the first wave," Professor Salim Abdool Karim, chairman of the government's Ministerial Advisory Committee, said in a briefing to journalists, according to the Associated Press.
South Africa has had 921,922 confirmed cases and 24,691 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins data. In the past day, it has seen 9,445 new cases and 152 new deaths.
Experts are saying the new strain of COVID-19 may be more infectious than the original virus.