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.
Norway says it 'can't rule out' vaccine side effects in 23 deaths
Twenty-three reports of suspected deaths associated with COVID-19 vaccines have been submitted to Norway's national health registry as of Jan. 14, according to an updated statement from the country's drug regulator on Monday.
The Norwegian Medicines Agency said it "cannot rule out that adverse reactions to the vaccine occurring within the first days following vaccination (such as fever and nausea) may contribute to more serious course and fatal outcome in patients with severe underlying disease."
Thirteen of those reports have been assessed by the drug regulator, as well as the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.
"The reports suggest that common adverse reactions to mRNA vaccines, such as fever and nausea, may have contributed to a fatal outcome in some frail patients," Sigurd Hortemo, chief physician at the Norwegian Medicines Agency, said in the statement.
Steinar Madsen, medical director of the Norwegian Medicines Agency, told the state-run broadcaster NRK: "We are not alarmed by this."
"It is quite clear that these vaccines have very little risk, with a small exception for the frailest patients," Madsen said. "Doctors must now carefully consider who should be vaccinated. Those who are very frail and at the very end of life can be vaccinated after an individual assessment."
Norway is currently administering COVID-19 vaccines to the elderly and people in nursing homes with serious underlying diseases -- at first with just the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine up until Jan. 15, and then also with the Moderna vaccine. Official figures show that more than 30,000 people have received the first shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines in Norway since the end of December.
According to the Norwegian Medicines Agency, an average of 400 people die each week in nursing homes and long-term care facilities nationwide.
The Scandinavian country of 5.3 million people has confirmed more than 58,000 cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, including at least 521 deaths, according to the latest data from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.