COVID-19 updates: 345 children currently hospitalized with coronavirus in Texas
That number was up from 282 on Thursday.
The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.
More than 643,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.5 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Just 61.7% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Risk of developing myocarditis higher for unvaccinated, CDC says
The benefits of getting a COVID-19 vaccine outweigh the risk of getting myocarditis from the vaccine, CDC experts say, adding that it's even more apparent now that cases are spiking among young people.
The risk of getting myocarditis - inflammation from the heart muscle – from the virus is much higher than getting it from a vaccine, scientists said at a CDC advisory panel Monday, pointing to new data.
The CDC estimates that the risk of myocarditis for the highest risk group -- young males age 16 to 17 -- is about 73 cases per million doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
The public health agency also estimates that 56,700 cases of COVID-19 would be prevented in that same age group for every million vaccines.
In addition, the risk of myocarditis after actually getting COVID-19 is six to 34 times higher than it is from getting a vaccine.
-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett
More than half of US nearing ICU capacity
As of Aug. 29, dozens of states were reporting limited beds in intensive care units, with 23 states reporting over 80% capacity and six states reporting over 90% capacity, CDC experts announced at an advisory panel Monday.
The panel also found that the risks of contracting COVID-19 are still much higher for the unvaccinated.
People between ages 18 and 49 are 24 times more likely to be hospitalized if unvaccinated, according to the CDC, 19 times higher for unvaccinated populations between 50 and 64 and 13 times for unvaccinated people 65 and older.
-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett
Vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization drops slightly, CDC says
The COVID-19 vaccines' ability to keep people out of the hospital appears to be dropping slightly, particularly for those 75 and older, although the vaccines still remain highly effective at preventing serious illness, according to an analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention presented Monday during an advisory panel.
The CDC has previously estimated that 97% of people in the hospital being treated for COVID-19 are unvaccinated, but that data was collected before the spread of delta, a hyper-transmissible variant that many doctors have warned appears to be making people sicker.
Health experts are also concerned that a person’s immunity could be waning over time, particularly among older people whose bodies are less likely than young people to develop a strong immune response to the vaccines.
The latest CDC analysis estimates that the ability of the COVID vaccines to keep a person out of the hospital is now between 75% to 95%.
For people older than 75 in particular, vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization experienced the steepest decline, from more than 90% to 80% between June and July.
However, the vaccines still remain highly effective at preventing serious illness, according to the briefing. "COVID-19 vaccines continue to maintain high protection against severe disease, hospitalization, and death," the CDC notes.
-ABC News’ Anne Flaherty
2-dose vaccine 'appears to be enough,' FDA adviser says
Dr. Paul Offit, a member of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's vaccine advisory committee, said a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine "appears to be enough" to curb infection, rather than adding a booster shot.
"You look at states in the United States that have high immunization rates with a two-dose vaccine, it appears the two doses appears to be enough to be able to control this infection," Offit, who is also the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, told ABC News on Thursday night. "I think the critical issue here is not going to be boosting the vaccinated. I think if we really want to get on top of this pandemic, it's going to be about vaccinating the unvaccinated."
The FDA's vaccine advisory committee is set to hold a key meeting on COVID-19 vaccine booster shots on Sept. 17, just three days before the Biden administration plans to begin offering the shots to Americans.
"If the companies or the FDA can make a case that there has been an erosion in protection against severe critical disease and that that erosion in protection against severe disease would be mediated or eliminated by a third dose, then we could move forward," Offit said. "But to date, we really need to see those data to be able to make that decision."