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.
Latest headlines:
US death toll could reach 419,000 by Jan. 16: CDC
Another 16,400 to 27,600 Americans are expected to die from COVID-19 by Jan. 16, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, citing its national ensemble forecast from 36 modeling groups.
That would bring the total COVID-19 death toll in the U.S. to between 378,000 and 419,000.
At least 326,495 Americans have died so far, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
ABC News’ Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report.
TSA sees busiest travel day of pandemic
The TSA screened 1,191,123 people at airport checkpoints nationwide on Wednesday, the highest single day total since the pandemic started, despite the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advising Americans against traveling for the holidays.
More than 6.3 million passengers have been screened since Dec. 18 .
ABC News’ Sam Sweeney and Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report.
California surpasses 2 million cases
California now has more than 2 million confirmed cases of coronavirus since the start of the pandemic -- the first state to report the grim milestone.
The state has at least 2,010,004 diagnosed cases and 23,651 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
UK halts flights from South Africa
Grant Shapps, the United Kingdom's transportation secretary tweeted that all flights to and from South Africa will be halted starting 9 a.m. Thursday, after a new coronavirus mutation was discovered in that country.
"British & Irish Nationals, visa holders and permanent residents arriving from South Africa will be able to enter but are required to self-isolate for ten days along with their household," he tweeted.
South African nationals won't be allowed to enter the U.K. until the ban is lifted, Shapps said.
Pfizer, BioNTech to supply US with 100M more vaccine doses
The U.S. government has ordered 100 million additional doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, Business Wire announced Wednesday morning.
This brings the total doses of the vaccine for the country to 200 million.
"With these 100 million additional doses, the United States will be able to protect more individuals and hopefully end this devastating pandemic more quickly," said Albert Bourla, the chairman and CEO of Pfizer. "We look forward to continuing our work with the U.S. government and healthcare providers around the country."
All 200 million doses are expected to be delivered by July 31, 2021, allowing for 100 million people in the U.S. to be vaccinated.
"Securing more doses from Pfizer and BioNTech for delivery in the second quarter of 2021 further expands our supply of doses across the Operation Warp Speed portfolio," said U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. "This new federal purchase can give Americans even more confidence that we will have enough supply to vaccinate every American who wants it by June 2021."