COVID-19 updates: Classes in Chicago canceled for 4th day
Chicago Public Schools has been in talks with teachers over COVID-19 safety.
As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.4 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 837,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 62.5% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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New York state reports 90,132 cases
New York state recorded 90,132 COVID-19 cases and 154 deaths on Friday.
11,843 COVID-19 patients are currently hospitalized in the state. Of the hospitalized, 42% are cases where COVID was not included as one of the reasons for admission, the governor's office said.
"There is an answer to this winter surge and it's simple: the vaccine and the booster," Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement. "Our vaccination rate among children is still too low. Parents and guardians don't delay in getting your children vaccinated and boosted, if eligible."
As of Friday, data showed the omicron variant represented 94% of sequences uploaded by New York State between Dec. 24 and Jan. 6, according to the governor's office.
LA County records record over 43,000 new cases in single day
Los Angeles County saw over 43,000 new cases in one day, a new record, health officials announced Friday.
This beats Thursday's previous record high of 37,000.
There are 2,902 people with COVID-19 currently hospitalized in the county, according to health officials.
L.A. County Director of Public Health Dr. Barbara Ferrer noted that vaccinated individuals are "between 10 and 30 times less likely to need hospital care than those unvaccinated."
"Every resident can also do their part to protect our healthcare personnel and hospitals. Please get vaccinated or boosted as soon as possible if eligible," she said in a statement.
-ABC News' Alex Stone
1 in 5 Americans have tested positive for COVID-19
The U.S. recorded more than 705,000 COVID-19 cases Thursday and is currently averaging 586,000 new cases per day -- the highest ever recorded during the pandemic. new federal data shows.
With a total confirmed case count of 58.8 million COVID-19 infections, this means one in approximately every five Americans have tested positive for the virus.
New York City is currently recording the country's highest case rate, followed by New Jersey and New York state
Meanwhile, the U.S. is reporting an average of about 1,200 new COVID-19 deaths per day, up by about 10% in the last week.
The death toll currently stands at 834,000, meaning about 1 in every 393 Americans has died from COVID-19.
-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos
Pfizer vaccine lowers risk of inflammatory condition in teens: CDC
The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine dramatically reduces the risk of teenagers developing MIS-C, a dangerous inflammatory condition, according to a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published Friday.
MIS-C is a condition in which different body parts can become inflamed such as the heart, lungs and kidneys. It tends to appear in kids and adolescents two to six weeks after becoming infected with COVID-19.
Researchers looked at children and teens between ages 12 and 18 from 24 hospitals across the country.
They found that the vaccine was 91% against MIS-C. Of the children who were critically ill with MIS-C and required life support, all were unvaccinated.
"No fully vaccinated patients with MIS-C required respiratory or cardiovascular life support, as opposed to 39% of unvaccinated MIS-C patients who did," the authors wrote.
-ABC News' Sony Salzman