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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Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman tests positive after attack on US Capitol
U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J. announced Monday that she has received a positive result for COVID-19 from a rapid antigen test and is awaiting results from a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test.
Coleman said she was forced to shelter in place with unmasked colleagues last week when a mob of President Donald Trump's supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C.
"Following the events of Wednesday, including sheltering with several colleagues who refused to wear masks, I decided to take a Covid test," Coleman, 75, wrote on Twitter. "I have tested positive."
The congresswoman, who previously received one dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, said she is experiencing mild, cold-like symptoms and is isolating at home.
-ABC News' Mariam Khan contributed to this report.
Japan identifies new COVID-19 variant: WHO
Japan has identified a new variant of COVID-19, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, said during a Monday news conference.
Japanese health officials alerted the WHO of the new variant, which is different than COVID-19 variants first identified in the U.K. and in South Africa, over the weekend. High transmission of the virus in much of the world is giving it more chances to mutate and evolve into new variants.
"Most notably, transmissibility of some variants of the virus appears to be increasing," Tedros said. "This can drive a surge of cases and hospitalizations, which is highly problematic for health workers and hospitals already close to breaking point," he added.
"At present, the variants do not seem to show increased severity of disease," Tedros said.
-ABC News' Christine Theodorou contributed to this report.
Single greatest cause of line-of-duty officers deaths last year was COVID-19
COVID-19 killed more law enforcement officers in the line of duty than anything else in 2020, according to a new report.
The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund report found that 145 of the 264 federal, state, military, tribal and local law enforcement officer deaths last year were related to COVID-19, with that number expected to rise as more deaths from the virus are confirmed. Other officer fatalities in 2020 included car crashes, heart attacks, stroke and firearm deaths.
Last year marked the highest number of line-of-duty law enforcement deaths since 1974.
-ABC News' Brian Hartman contributed to this report.
1 American death from COVID-19 is reported every 30 seconds
It's just over a week into 2021 and the United States has already seen its worst week on record for both COVID-19 infections and deaths.
In the first 10 days of the month, the country has recorded some 2.35 million COVID-19 cases and more than 28,000 deaths from the disease. That works out to be around 163 Americans diagnosed with COVID-19 every minute, and approximately one American death from the disease reported every 30 seconds, according to an ABC News analysis of data compiled by The COVID Tracking Project, a volunteer-run effort to track the U.S. outbreak.
The U.S. has not seen a day with fewer than 100,000 new cases in more than two months, with a record-high average of 243,000 newly confirmed infections every day. In the last week alone, that average of daily cases has increased by approximately 16.3%.
Sunday marked the 41st consecutive day with more than 1,000 fatalities from COVID-19 reported nationwide. The country's average of daily deaths jumped by 21.4% in the last seven days.
Meanwhile, more than 129,000 people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 across the U.S. -- a number that has hovered around 130,000 for the last several days.
At the current rate, January could surpass December's staggering COVID-19 totals to become the nation's hardest hit month of the pandemic.
ABC News' Brian Hartman and Arielle Mitropoulos 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.