Texas attorney general Ken Paxton waded into a battle between the city of Austin and Gov. Greg Abbott Friday over whether the city's four-day late-night indoor dining shutdown should be allowed.

Austin's ban, which was set to run between 10:30 p.m. and 6 a.m. from Dec. 31 until Jan. 3, was upheld by a judge on Thursday. Hours later, at 7:39 p.m. local time on New Year's Eve, the governor released a statement on Twitter telling restaurants to stay open.

Paxton backed the governor on Friday and called for the Texas Supreme Court to halt enforcement of the ban. "We cannot have local declarations conflicting with Gov. Abbott’s clear order," he said in a statement. "I will continue to fight for Texans, small businesses and for an open economy."

-ABC News' Jenna Harrison contributed to this report.

The United States surpassed 20 million coronavirus cases on New Year's Day, with 20,007,149 infections, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

In different terms, 1 out of every 16 Americans has tested positive for COVID-19.

As the nation's third COVID wave continues, California has emerged as a major epicenter of the U.S. outbreak and at least three states have reported cases of the new COVID variant, which originated in the U.K. Health experts believe it to be more transmissible than the old variant, although it is not thought to be more deadly.

According to JHU, 346,408 Americans had died of the virus as of Friday.

Sen. Mitt Romney criticized the Trump administration's vaccine rollout in a statement he released Friday, writing: "when something isn’t working, you need to acknowledge reality and develop a plan—particularly when hundreds of thousands of lives are at stake."

Relying on states in lieu of developing a federal vaccination plan is "as incomprehensible as it is inexcusable," Romney wrote, and offered up his own suggestions as examples of the brainstorming he said ought to be happening in Washington.

The government should enlist every medical professional not currently delivering care, such as retired veterinarians, combat medics and corpsmen and medical students, to administer vaccines, Romney suggested, noting that they could be paid using the funding Congress has appropriated for states. Additionally, schools could serve as vaccine sites and vaccinations could be scheduled for specific days according to a person's priority category and birthdate.

While public health professionals will easily point out errors in his plan, he said, the nation needs new strategies based on "experience, modeling and trial," especially as the U.S. begins vaccinating more complex populations.

"We are already behind," Romney added. "Urgent action now can help us catch up."

-ABC News' Trish Turner and Chris Howell contributed to this report.

Construction on a 30-bed emergency field hospital is slated to start in western North Carolina Friday, as COVID-19 cases in the state continue to rise.

The facility, which is being built next to Caldwell Memorial Hospital, will treat COVID patients who aren't sick enough to need a ventilator and is meant to relieve pressure on five health systems in the region.

As of Thursday, 3,472 people were hospitalized because of the virus, according to the state health department.

New York has become the fourth state to cross 1 million COVID-19 cases, the governor announced Saturday.

New York joined California, Texas and Florida in hitting that mark. Illinois, at over 975,000 cases, is likely to join those four in the coming days. California has already crossed 2 million cases.

"With 2020 now behind us, we can see brighter days ahead, but to get there quickly, it's going to take all New Yorkers staying smart and staying united," Gov. Andre Cuomo said in a statement. "We have the vaccine, and that is good news, but it will be months before we've reached critical mass, making it as important as ever that we do not let COVID fatigue get the best of us."

The state reported just over 15,000 new cases on Saturday and a percent-positivity rate that has grown to 7.45%. That number was around 1% for much of the summer after being the epicenter for the pandemic in the spring.

There was some good news on Saturday as Cuomo reported there were 72 fewer people hospitalized due to the virus in the state.

Officials continue to fear growing cases in the new year after Christmas and New Year's travel in recent weeks. New York crossed 30,000 deaths earlier this week.