Coronavirus updates: 1st vaccines now on the way to all 50 US states
Two main trucks left the Pfizer facility on Sunday morning, the company said.
A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now infected more than 71.5 million people and killed over 1.6 million worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
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US sees record-breaking cases, current hospitalizations
The U.S. broke records in new COVID-19 cases and current hospitalizations on Friday, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
There were 232,105 new cases, and 108,044 people are currently hospitalized with the virus, the project reported.
The seven-day average for new COVID-19 cases, deaths and current hospitalizations also reached new highs on Friday, it found.
Nevada, South Dakota and Arizona now lead the nation in current hospitalized patients per million people, according to the tracker.
New cases, deaths continue to increase week-over-week, HHS memo shows
After a slowdown in reporting and testing over the Thanksgiving holiday, week-over-week COVID-19 numbers continue to show dramatic increases in new cases and deaths, according to an internal U.S. Department of Health and Human Services memo obtained by ABC News Friday night.
From Dec. 5 to 11, there was an 18.1% increase in new cases and a 26.9% increase in new deaths compared with the previous week, the memo said.
Across the country, 31% of hospitals have more than 80% of their intensive care unit beds filled, and 31% of ventilators in use are occupied by COVID-19 patients, HHS said. Additionally, 21% of inpatients have COVID-19, nearing the all-time peak of 24%.
Cases are sharply rising in Alaska, California, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts and Utah, the memo noted. Maryland, South Dakota and Wyoming have also seen a surge in COVID-19 fatality rates.
-ABC News' Josh Margolin
Another record-breaking day for LA County
Los Angeles County reported a new high for COVID-19 cases on Friday, topping the record set the day before.
There were 13,815 new cases reported on Friday, surpassing Thursday's record by nearly 1,000.
Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer attributed the surge to Thanksgiving gatherings.
"The impact of these Thanksgiving surges of cases, on top of already rising cases, is creating extraordinary stress," she said at a briefing. "Should this be followed by another surge related to the winter holiday, the numbers of hospitalizations and patients in the ICU could become catastrophic."
There are 3,624 people currently hospitalized with COVID-19. In two weeks, that could be over 7,300 people, Ferrer warned, if the average number of cases and hospitalizations continue to climb.
-ABC News' Bonnie Mclean and Cammeron Parrish contributed to this report
HHS buys another 100 million doses of Moderna vaccine
The Department of Health and Human Services said it’s buying another 100 million doses of Moderna's vaccine candidate, which is scheduled for review by the FDA advisory committee next Thursday.
The federal government will now own a total 200 million doses of the Moderna vaccine.
ABC News’ Stephanie Ebbs contributed to this report.
2 trucks with COVID-19 vaccines have left facility, Pfizer says
The first vaccines in the U.S. have now left the Pfizer facility and are on their way to all 50 states.
Two main trucks left on Sunday morning -- an additional truck will come in later to pick up a few boxes and take them to the U.S. territories.
On Monday Pfizer has an order for another 400 boxes of the vaccine as well as an order for a slightly less amount of boxes on Tuesday, the company said.
The first shipments are expected to arrive at 145 sites on Monday, 425 sites on Tuesday and another 66 sites on Wednesday, Gen. Gus Perna of the Trump administration's Operation Warp Speed vaccine program said.
At those sites, the vaccines will be paired with ancillary kits to assist with the vaccinations. The kits contain needles, syringes, alcohol swabs, diluent, safety gear and vaccine reminder cards.
-ABC News' Joshua Hoyos and Luis Martinez