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.
'There is no plan B' for Tokyo Olympics, IOC chief says
Despite rising COVID-19 infections in Japan, International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said Thursday that there is "no reason whatsoever" to believe the Olympic Games in Tokyo will not open on July 23 as planned.
"This is why there is no plan B and this is why we are fully committed to make these games safe and successful," Back told Japanese news agency Kyodo in an interview Thursday.
However, Bach admitted he could not guarantee that the stands would be full or rule out the possibility that the Games would be held without spectators, according to Kyodo.
The 2020 Summer Olympics were supposed to kick off in Tokyo last year on July 24. But in late March, amid mounting calls to delay or cancel the upcoming Games, the International Olympic Committee and Japan's prime minister announced that the event would be held a year later due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Now, Japan is facing a resurgence of COVID-19. The country of 126 million people reported the highest number of new cases in the Western Pacific region last week. The infection rate -- currently at 32.8 cases per 100,000 people -- increased by 4% over the previous week, according to the World Health Organization's latest COVID-19 weekly epidemiological update.
The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare confirmed 5,662 new cases of COVID-19 as well as an additional 87 fatalities from the disease on Thursday, bringing the cumulative totals to 348,646 cases and 4,829 deaths.
Japanase Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has declared a state of emergency in Tokyo and 10 other prefectures due to climbing case counts and growing death tolls.