Coronavirus updates: US will soon have 'half a million' deaths, incoming CDC chief says
The U.S. is forecast to have almost 500,000 COVID-19 deaths by mid-February.
A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now infected more than 94.2 million people worldwide and killed over 2 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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Texas is 1st US state to administer 1 million vaccines
Texas, home to about 29 million people, has become the first U.S. state to administer more than 1 million vaccine doses, Gov. Greg Abbott said.
Texas has 2,040,751 confirmed cases and at least 31,277 fatalities, according to real-time data collected by Johns Hopkins University.
Texas’ Harris County, home to Houston, ranks No. 5 in the country for the highest number of confirmed cases, behind Los Angeles County, California; Cook County, Illinois; Marciopa County, Arizona; and Miami-Dade County, Florida.
ABC News’ Gina Sunseri contributed to this report.
Brazil variant prompts UK to ban arrivals from some South and Central American countries
The United Kingdom will ban arrivals from several South and Central American countries beginning Friday, following evidence of a new variant of the novel coronavirus from Brazil, British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced Thursday.
The U.K. government will ban arrivals from Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela, according to Shapps.
Travel from Portugal to the U.K. will also be suspended given its strong travel links with Brazil, Shapps said.
ABC News’ Christine Theodorou contributed to this report.
About 1 in 3 has been infected in LA County
About one in every three people in Los Angeles County has been infected with COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, Los Angeles County Health Department officials said Wednesday.
Los Angeles County is close to becoming the county to reach 1 million cases. As of Thursday morning, 958,497 people in the county had been infected.
ABC News’ Bonnie Mclean contributed to this report.
Arizona leading US in cases per capita
The U.S. is averaging over 242,000 new cases per day, according to ABC News’ analysis of COVID Tracking Project data.
Arizona is leading the country in cases per capita.
In Virginia, Georgia and Florida, daily case numbers dwarf their respective summer peaks.
In New York, the average number of daily cases is 65% higher than during the spring surge.
ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos contributed to this report.
7-day averages for cases down across US
There are some encouraging signs in the latest COVID-19 data.
The seven-day averages for cases are declining throughout the U.S., according to The COVID Tracking Project.
The averages are down in all four regions that the tracker compares: Northeast, Midwest, South and West.
On a national level, it appears that COVID-19 hospitalizations are also on the decline, the tracker said. Though it noted that some areas are still seeing an "overwhelming" level of hospitalizations.
The U.S. reported 243,996 new cases, 3,679 new deaths and 127,235 currently hospitalizations on Friday, according to The COVID Tracking Project's tally.