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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Only 1.1% of ICU beds available in California, Newsom says
California Gov. Gavin Newsom urged residents to heed health warnings during the holiday season as the state's hospital system is pushed to the limit with COVID-19 patients.
He warned there could be multiple surges in cases "unless we are cautious and mindful about our travel plans this holiday season and about our proximity to people outside our households."
The number of the Intensive Care Unit patients is now 3,827, which was nearly double the 2,006 patients on Dec. 1, according to Newsom.
"On Monday, we were at 2.5% ICU availability and now as a state today, we are down to 1.1% ICU bed availability," he said.
"We had 8,517 people that were in our hospitals that tested positive for COVID-19 on Dec. 1st. Now 18,828 people are testing positive in just a three-week period," Newsom added.
-ABC News' Cammeron Parish contributed to this report
Likely ‘tens of thousands’ with new variant in UK
The new COVID-19 variant in the United Kingdom has likely infected tens of thousands of people, Jeffrey Barrett, director of the COVID-19 Genomics Initiative at the U.K. Wellcome Sanger Institute, said at a virtual Q&A hosted by the World Health Organization.
While there are just over 3,000 people who have the full genome sequence confirmed for the variant, only a small fraction of cases are sequenced, he said.
There’s no evidence the new variant is more deadly and it’s highly likely the vaccine will still work, officials said.
ABC News’ Sony Salzman contributed to this report.
'Fauci Day' announced in DC
Thursday, Dec. 24, Dr. Anthony Fauci’s 80th birthday, will be "Dr. Anthony S. Fauci" day in Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser announced Wednesday.
"We are incredibly proud to count Dr. Fauci among the many DC residents who are sacrificing so much to keep our communities healthy and safe,” Bowser tweeted.
California reports 39,069 daily cases
Hard-hit California reported 39,069 daily cases on Wednesday -- a 2% increase from Tuesday.
California’s daily cases are more than the daily cases in the United Kingdom, Russia, India, Italy and France, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
California is recording more than twice as many daily cases than the next hardest-hit states. Tennessee recorded 16,036 cases Tuesday and Texas had 16,607 cases, according to Johns Hopkins.
ABC News’ Bonnie Mclean contributed to this report.
Over 60 arrested at superspreader events in LA County
Los Angeles officials arrested over 60 people involved in underground parties over the weekend.
In a statement, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said the parties were considered superspreader events, as they violated COVID-19 health protocols.
Around 10:45 p.m. Saturday, the Los Angeles Police Department responded to an underground party event in Los Angeles and found two people shot. One of the victims was pronounced dead at the scene, according to a statement from the LASD.
Then, at around 12:30 a.m. Sunday, officers responded to another underground party in Compton, where they arrested 67 people: 61 adults and six juveniles. One firearm was recovered.
A third underground party, located in Los Angeles, was shut down by the LAPD after a shooting took place.
"Sheriff Alex Villanueva has made it clear he will seek out and take law enforcement action against all underground party events occurring anywhere within Los Angeles County, who fall under the Health Orders of the County’s Department of Public Health," the LASD said in their statement. "The goal of these enforcement actions is to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and the risk to our vulnerable populations."