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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US daily deaths from COVID-19 surpass 4,000 for 2nd straight day
The United States registered an additional 4,022 deaths from COVID-19 on Wednesday, according to data collected by The COVID Tracking Project, a volunteer-run effort to track the U.S. outbreak.
That marks the second day in a row that the country's daily COVID-19 death toll crossed 4,000, and the third time since Jan. 7, according to The COVID Tracking Project.
The seven-day average of COVID-19 deaths is up by 10% or more in 26 U.S. states as of Wednesday, compared to the previous week, according to The COVID Tracking Project.
The U.S. also confirmed 219,090 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, while 130,383 people remained hospitalized with the disease, according to The COVID Tracking Project.
Mississippi runs out of COVID-19 vaccine supply
Mississippi has allotted its entire supply of COVID-19 vaccines and doesn't expect more doses until mid-February, the state health department announced Wednesday.
"Neither the county health department drive-through sites, nor the [University of Mississippi Medical Center] vaccine scheduling website was designed to accommodate the monumental surge we are currently experiencing," the Mississippi State Department of Health said in a statement. "At this time, we have no additional vaccine, and every appointment is tied to an actual vaccination."
New appointments are expected to resume after an anticipated vaccine resupply in mid-February, the department said.
On Tuesday, the state opened vaccine eligibility to people ages 65 and older and those with certain chronic health conditions, which led to an influx of calls to the state's COVID-19 hotline, officials said. Previously, vaccinations were prioritized for health care workers, long-term care residents and those over the age of 75.
"We decided to open vaccines to many more people. We knew it would cause a rush, but believe it is more fair than having government arbitrarily limit access," Gov. Tate Reeves said on Twitter Wednesday evening.
As of Tuesday, the state had administered 62,744 vaccinations over the last four weeks, Reeves said during a press briefing.
ABC News' Will Gretsky contributed to this report.
Disneyland opens as mass vaccination site
Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, opened as a mass COVID-19 vaccination site Wednesday.
About 3,000 people were expected to receive the vaccine on the first day, with about an hour-and-a-half wait time, county officials said. The site ultimately should be able to vaccinate over 7,000 people a day, Orange County First District Chairman Andrew Do said at a press briefing.
Vaccinations are by appointment only. Those without an appointment and proper identification will be turned away, the Orange County Health Care Agency warned repeatedly on Twitter Wednesday.
Over 10,000 people signed up for a slot within two hours of online registration opening on Tuesday, officials said. Disneyland has been closed to parkgoers since last spring.
Other mass vaccination sites are slated to open in the hard-hit state, including Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles and Cal Expo in Sacramento. Petco Park in San Diego also opened earlier this week as a vaccination site.
People in Phase 1A -- health care workers and long-term care residents -- currently have the highest priority to receive vaccines in California.
On Wednesday, the state announced that people 65 and older are also now eligible, in an effort to help speed up vaccine distribution.
The Walt Disney Co. is the parent company of ABC News.
ABC News Abigail Shalawylo contributed to this report.
COVID cases at lowest levels in children: CDC
COVID-19 cases continue to be significantly lower in younger kids, even as some went back to school in-person, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The incidence of COVID-19 in children, particularly those ages 0 to 10, has been lower than that of young adults and adults throughout the entire second half of 2020, according to the CDC. The incidence of COVID-19 cases in kids was higher as the age increased.
While older teenagers and young adults saw a surge of cases near the beginning of the school year, this was not seen in younger kids, "suggesting that young adults might contribute more to community transmission than do younger children," the report said.
Children also had significantly lower rates of hospitalizations, intensive care unit stays and death than adults, the study found.
Fewer COVID-19 tests are performed on children, so the actual incidence may be higher than the data that's available.
Teacher and school employee transmission risk also were not included in the data.
The CDC continues to recommend strict mitigation strategies to prevent transmission in schools that are in-person.
-ABC News' Dr. Rose Marie Leslie
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.