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.
US deaths, cases continue to rise: HHS
The number of new coronavirus cases and deaths jumped over the last seven days, according to an internal U.S. Department of Health and Human Services memo obtained by ABC News.
In the last week, the country recorded 1,677,232 new cases, which was a 13.6% increase from the previous seven-day period, according to the memo.
There were 18,578 deaths recorded during the last seven days, marking a 9.2% jump from the previous week, according to HHS.
Nearly 30% of hospitals across the country have more than 80% of their ICU beds filled, the memo said.
Several states recorded large jumps in hospitalizations last week, according to HHS.
On Dec 18, Louisiana state officials reported its 30-day increase in hospitalization was 82% and there were only 19.1% of ICU beds were available, according to the memo.
Nevada's COVID-19 deaths increased by 21% in the week ending Dec. 15, compared to the prior week, HHS said.
-ABC News' Josh Margolin contributed to this report