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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Pope Francis' personal doctor dies from COVID-19
Pope Francis' personal doctor has died of complications related to COVID-19, the Vatican's newspaper L’Osservatore Romano announced Saturday.
Fabrizio Soccorsi, 78, was being treated for cancer at a hospital in Rome at the time of his death, according to the newspaper.
Soccorsi was chosen by the pontiff to be his personal physician in 2015.
In an interview with Italian television channel Canale 5 that aired Sunday night, Francis said COVID-19 vaccinations will begin at the Vatican next week and that he will get the shot.
ABC News' Phoebe Natanson contributed to this report.
Palestinian health ministry approves Russian vaccine
Sputnik V, a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Russia, has been registered by the Palestinian Ministry of Health for emergency use in Palestinian self-ruled territory, Russia's sovereign wealth fund announced Monday.
The first shipment of doses is expected to arrive next month, according to a press release from the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which is responsible for worldwide marketing of the vaccine.
The RDIF didn't say how many doses would be shipped to the Palestinian Authority -- which governs parts of the West Bank under interim peace deals with Israel -- but that supplies would be facilitated by manufacturing partners in India, China, South Korea and other countries.
As of Jan. 5, the World Health Organization had recorded more than 157,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the occupied Palestinian territories, including at least 1,578 deaths.
ABC News' Patrick Reevell contributed to this report.
Moderna vaccine doses arrive in France
More than 50,000 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by U.S. biotechnology company Moderna are expected to arrive in France on Monday, according to a statement from the country's health ministry.
France should have nearly 8 million doses of the Moderna vaccine by the end of June, the health ministry said.
Last week, the European Medicines Agency authorized the Moderna vaccine for use across the European Union. Another COVID-19 vaccine developed by U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech was approved two weeks earlier. Both vaccines are administered in two doses.
French Health Minister Olivier Veran told Europe 1 radio that the Moderna doses will then be sent to towns and cities with the highest virus circulation. The doses should reach vaccination centers by Wednesday, he said.
By the end of the weekend, Veran said, more than 100,000 people should have received a first dose of the vaccine.
France has faced criticism for a slow vaccine rollout compared to its EU neighbours.
ABC News' Ibtissem Guenfoud contributed to this report.
Mexico detects 1st case of UK variant
A new, more infectious variant of the novel coronavirus that was first detected in the United Kingdom has now been discovered in Mexico.
The strain, called B117, was confirmed in a 56-year-old foreign citizen who had traveled from Amsterdam to Mexico City on Dec. 28, and then to the northeastern city of Matamoros the following day. The individual was asymptomatic when he arrived in the country, according to Mexico's director general of epidemiology, Jose Luis Alomia Zegarra.
After testing positive for COVID-19, the man was admitted to a Mexican hospital last week where he remains intubated, Zegarra said.
Genomic sequencing of the patient's sample that tested positive for COVID-19 revealed its B117 lineage. More than 500 suspected cases of the U.K. variant have been tested in Mexico, but this is the country's first verified case, according to Zegarra.
Mexican health authorities are tracking contacts of the patient, including people who traveled on the same flight. Two individuals who showed symptoms have since tested negative for COVID-19, while another 31 are asymptomatic and remain in isolation. Officials have been unable to locate 12 others, Zegarra said.
The highly contagious strain has become prevalent in London and other parts of southeast England, after first being identified in the English county of Kent in September. The B117 variant has since been detected in over a dozen other countries.
Dodger Stadium to open as mass vaccination site Friday
Los Angeles' Dodger Stadium will open as one of the largest mass vaccination sites in the country on Friday, officials announced.
The stadium will have the capacity to vaccinate 12,000 people a day, LA Mayor Eric Garcetti said during his COVID-19 briefing Thursday.
Eligibility in Los Angeles County currently is limited to health care workers and seniors in nursing facilities.
The vaccination push comes as 1 in 3 people in LA County has been infected with COVID-19, Garcetti said. The county reported 17,323 new cases on Thursday.
"Our numbers remain very high. We remain one of the epicenters of this disease across the country," Garcetti said, though he added that there are signs that hospitalizations may be stabilizing.
ABC News' Cammeron Parrish contributed to this report.