Coronavirus updates: Herd immunity by fall 'ambitious,' says surgeon general nominee
In 44 states, the seven-day average of new cases dropped over 10%.
A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now infected more than 98.7 million people worldwide and killed over 2.1 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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California reports highest daily death toll
California reported its highest daily death toll since the start of the pandemic with another 764 lives lost.
The state reported 23,024 new cases on Friday.
Severe allergic reactions rare but possible with Moderna vaccine
A CDC report released Friday indicates that the risk of severe allergic reactions with Moderna's vaccine is low. Severe, life threatening allergic reactions were seen in 2.5 cases per million people receiving the first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, the report said.
Of the 4,041,396 first doses given as of Jan. 10, there were 1,266 (0.03%) reports of "adverse events," the report said. Among those, 108 "adverse events" were considered as possible cases of severe allergic reaction, including anaphylaxis. Ten cases were determined to be anaphylaxis (a rate of 2.5 anaphylaxis cases per 1 million doses) including nine people with a documented history of allergies or allergic reactions, the report said.
ABC News’ Sony Salzman contributed to this report.
UK variant may be associated with higher mortality, Boris Johnson says
More people are testing positive for the United Kingdom’s variant of the coronavirus, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Friday “there is some evidence that the new variant may be associated with a higher degree of mortality.”
U.K. Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty stressed that the data is uncertain and there is a chance the new variant is increasing infections and mortality.
The U.K. has seen record daily death tolls several times this week.
There were 1,401 deaths in the last 24 hours.
ABC News’ Kirit Radia, Sony Salzman and Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.
New York running out of vaccines today but more on the way: Cuomo
New York state has used 97% of its allocated vaccine doses so far (for weeks 1 through 5) and will run out of doses by the end of the day, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday.
Week 6 doses are currently being delivered, the governor said.
New York’s positivity rate has fallen to 5.65%, Cuomo said. Hospitalizations are also on the decline.
ABC News’ Rachel Katz contributed to this report.
New Zealand reports 1st community COVID-19 case since November
The New Zealand Health Ministry announced Sunday it recorded its first coronavirus case from within the community in three months.
New Zealand has been reporting positive cases in managed isolation, which requires anyone who travels into the country, both citizens and non-citizens, to go into a 14-day quarantine in a designated facility. There have been no cases from within the community since November.
The female patient traveled in Spain and the Netherlands late last year for work, according to officials.
"While in the Netherlands she was in contact with family members, who subsequently tested positive for COVID-19," the health ministry said in a statement.
The patient arrived in Auckland on Dec. 30 following a trip from the United Kingdom with a layover in Singapore, according to the Health Ministry. The patient stayed at a hotel during her 14-day quarantine and tested negative on Jan. 2 and Jan. 10, according to the Health Ministry.
"The person started developing mild symptoms on 15 January and these progressively got worse. The person had a test taken on Friday 22 January and self-isolated at home," the Health Ministry said in a statement.
The patient's roommate hasn't shown any symptoms so far, but has been tested and is isolating at home, according to the Health Ministry.
The Health Ministry said it is contact tracing and carrying out rapid genome sequencing to see if there's a match to one of the more transmissible variants.
-ABC News' Christine Theodorou