Coronavirus updates: California reports over 49,000 new cases, 468 new deaths
More than 373,000 Americans have died from COVID-19.
A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now infected more than 90 million people worldwide and killed over 1.9 million of them, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Latest headlines:
3 new cases of UK variant detected in New York
Three more cases of the U.K. COVID-19 variant have been detected in New York state, Gov. Cuomo said Saturday. Two of the cases were in Saratoga County and one in Nassau County.
The governor blasted the federal government for what he said did nothing to stop the arrival of the variant in the state.
There have been 259,000 vaccines to date this week in New York. With the state's current allocation of 300,000 vaccine doses per week, it will take 14 weeks to vaccinate all of 1A and 1B groups.
A vaccine call center will open 4 p.m. on Monday and a website will go live the same day at 8 a.m. for New York.
- ABC News' Jamie A. Aranoff
Queen Elizabeth, Duke of Edinburgh receive COVID-19 vaccinations
“The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh have today received Covid-19 vaccinations," according to a statement from a Buckingham Palace spokesperson Saturday.
The vaccinations were administered by a Household Doctor at Windsor Castle, according to a Royal source.
The announcement was made to the public "to prevent inaccuracies and further speculation" and "Her Majesty decided that she would let it be known she has had the vaccination," according to a statement from the Royal Communications at Buckingham Palace.
- ABC News' Zoe Magee
Cuomo expands vaccine eligibility for New Yorkers
New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced Friday the expansion of "the state's vaccination distribution network to help accelerate the administration of the COVID-19 vaccine" to residents under groups 1A and 1B, according to a release.
Thanks to this, essential workers and residents over the age of 75 can begin to make vaccination reservations at administration sites as early as next Monday, Jan. 11.
"Over the past week, we have seen hospitals increase their vaccination rates and I thank them for their efforts, but it's still not enough, so we're going to accelerate the distribution," Cuomo said.
Thousands of new providers statewide will help vaccinate health care workers, essential workers and individuals 75 and older.
"The federal government controls the supply, so as we continue to receive more, New York will not only ensure doses are distributed in the most fair and socially equitable way possible, but that health care workers continue to be prioritized so our hospitals remain safe and staffed," Cuomo added.
Group 1B, the largest group, is comprised of 3.2 million New Yorkers, including 870,000 education workers, 207,000 first responders, 100,000 public safety workers, 100,000 public transit workers and 1.4 million people 75 and older, the release states. All of these people will now be eligible to receive the vaccine.
Prior to Cuomo's announcement, only the 2.1 million New Yorkers in group 1A were eligible to receive the vaccine.
US crosses 300K new daily cases for 1st time
The U.S. has surpassed 300,000 new daily COVID-19 cases for the first time, according to The COVID Tracking Project.
There were 310,080 new cases reported Friday. New Jersey and California both "greatly influenced" the surge in cases, the tracker said. New Jersey reported nearly 20,000 probable COVID-19 cases and California had over 50,000 cases.
Sixteen states also reported record COVID-19 hospitalizations this week, the tracker said: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.
Hospitalizations in California and Arizona in particular are increasing at an alarming rate, it noted.