Data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from the weekend shows that the U.S. is now averaging nearly half a million new cases a day.

About a year ago, the U.S. was reporting an average of about 216,000 new cases a day. However, compared to last winter, hospital admissions and daily deaths are notably lower.

Over the last week, the U.S. reported more than 3.4 million new cases -- roughly averaging out to nearly six Americans testing positive every second.

-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos

At least three major health systems in Florida said half of their COVID-19 patients were originally admitted to hospitals for other reasons.

During a briefing about the pandemic in Jacksonville on Tuesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis said about 50% of COVID hospitalizations at Orlando Health and Miami Jackson Health and 60% at Tallahassee Memorial were being treated for other reasons and learned were positive for the virus during their stays.

In a tweet, Miami Jackson Health said its exact figure is 53%.

DeSantis called on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to change the way it reports COVID-19 hospitalizations.

"It really isn't instructive if you have something that is very widespread and mild, and it's catching people as they go into the hospital with positive tests, but they're not actually having any clinical diagnosis," he said.

It comes one day after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said hospitals in her state would be surveyed about how many patients were being admitted to hospitals for COVID as opposed to with COVID.

-ABC News' Will McDuffie

The U.S. is recording 1,200 new COVID-19 deaths every day, up by about 10% in the last week, according to federal data.

Nearly 828,000 Americans have now died due to the virus. Just three weeks ago, the death toll surpassed 800,000.

Additionally, more than 112,000 Americans are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, with just under a fifth of those patients -- nearly 20,000 -- in intensive care units.

On average, more than 12,700 people in the U.S. are being admitted to hospitals with COVID-19 daily, a figure which has nearly doubled over the last month.

-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos

COVID-19 vaccines do not increase the risk of premature or low-weight birth among babies born to pregnant vaccinated women compared with those born to unvaccinated women, according to a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published Tuesday.

Researchers from Yale looked at electronic health data from more than 40,000 pregnant women from the CDC's Vaccine Safety Datalink.

There were 7.0 premature births for every 100,000 babies born among unvaccinated women compared to 4.9 births per 100,000 for babies born to women who received a COVID vaccine while pregnant.

Additionally, rates of low-birth weight were 8.2 per 100,000 in both the unvaccinated and vaccinated groups.

The team said the findings add to a growing body of evidence that getting vaccinated against COVID is safe for pregnant people and for their babies.

Pregnant women are at increased risk for severe illness, hospitalization and death from COVID-19, but only 40% have been vaccinated, CDC data shows.

The number of COVID-19 vaccinations in the U.S. has declined over the last three weeks despite the surging number of cases due to the omicron variant.

In the past, surges have driven Americans to get vaccinated. However, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows the average number of total doses administered has fallen 42% since Dec. 14.

An average of 304,000 Americans are currently receiving their first dose every day and 165,000 are reaching "full vaccination" status.

This is a drop from three weeks prior, when 455,000 were getting their first dose every day and 402,000 were reaching "full vaccination" status.

Additionally, the average number of people receiving booster shots every day has declined to 623,000 from more than one million.

A total of 67.4 million eligible Americans -- aged five and older -- remain completely unvaccinated.

-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos