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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Herd immunity by fall an ‘ambitious goal,’ says nominee for surgeon general
The possibility of obtaining herd immunity by the time summer is over and a new school year begins may be an "ambitious goal," Vivek Murthy, President Joe Biden's nominee for U.S. surgeon general, told George Stephanopoulos on "This Week" Sunday.
"I think what -- I think we can see improvement," Murthy said. "I think we can see reductions in cases and hospitalizations and deaths. I think we can see many more people immunized."
The "important thing" will be getting as many people vaccinated as possible, Murthy added.
"The more people we vaccinate, the better we will do, the fewer outbreaks we will see, the sooner we can get back to our way of life," he said.
Murthy also emphasized the importance of dispelling misinformation as well as continuing to take the necessary precautions, such as wearing masks and avoiding indoor gatherings.
"Then I think we can be on a path to not only turning the pandemic around, but, most importantly, getting our schools open, our workplaces back up and running, and regaining our way of life," he said.
US surpasses 25 million positive cases
The U.S. has surpassed 25 million cases of COVID-19, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally.
The national total confirmed case count currently sits at 25,003,695.
Last week, the U.S. surpassed 400,000 deaths from the virus. The death toll is currently at 417,463 in the U.S. and at 2,122,766 worldwide.
The number of global confirmed cases is nearing 100 million, currently sitting at 98,853,428.
-ABC News’ Joshua Hoyos
Over 20 million vaccine doses administered in US
There have now been more than 20 million vaccine doses given out in the U.S., the CDC reported on Saturday.
The milestone was reached 23 days after the goal set by former President Donald Trump administration's Operation Warp Speed to reach that number of doses by the end of 2020.
President Joe Biden's administration has pledged to distribute 100 million doses in the first 100 days, as well as ramp up production of materials to administer vaccines amid an increase in demand and shortages of supply at the state level.
-ABC News' Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report.
University of Michigan pauses all sports after positive tests
The University of Michigan has paused all athletics, including men's and women's basketball, for at least 14 days following "several" positive tests by people within the Michigan Athletic Department. The positive tests were also for the so-called U.K. variant, a more-contagious version of the virus. The decision to pause athletics was made in part due to the fact the tests were for the B.1.1.7 variant.
The decision was made not by the school but by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. The athletic programs will not be able to play or practice during the period.
"Canceling competitions is never something we want to do, but with so many unknowns about this variant of COVID-19, we must do everything we can to minimize the spread among student-athletes, coaches, staff, and to the student-athletes at other schools," Athletic Director Warde Manuel said in a statement.
The Wolverines men's basketball team, which is currently ranked No. 7 in the latest Associated Press poll, last played Friday against Purdue. Michigan won, 70-53, to advance to 13-1. They currently lead the Big Ten Conference at 8-1. They were supposed to play on Wednesday at Penn State.
The women's basketball team, currently 10-1 overall and ranked No. 11, was supposed to play Purdue on Sunday. The powerhouse men's ice hockey program, ranked in the top 10 nationally, will be affected as well.
The school said no determination has been made on how games scheduled to be played through Feb. 7 will be impacted.
US reports under 200,000 new cases for 1st time in 2 weeks
There were 174,513 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in the United States on Sunday, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
It's the first time in two weeks that the country has logged under 200,000 newly confirmed infections in a 24-hour reporting period. Sunday's tally is far less than the country's all-time high of 302,506 new cases on Jan. 2, Johns Hopkins data shows.
An additional 1,723 fatalities from COVID-19 were registered nationwide on Sunday, down from a peak of 4,462 new deaths on Jan. 12, according to Johns Hopkins data.
COVID-19 data may be skewed due to possible lags in reporting over the holiday weekend and earlier holidays.
A total of 23,936,772 people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and at least 397,600 have died, according to Johns Hopkins data. The cases include people from all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., and other U.S. territories as well as repatriated citizens.
Much of the country was under lockdown by the end of March as the first wave of pandemic hit. By May 20, all U.S. states had begun lifting stay-at-home orders and other restrictions put in place to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. The day-to-day increase in the country's cases then hovered around 20,000 for a couple of weeks before shooting back up over the summer.
The numbers lingered around 40,000 to 50,000 from mid-August through early October before surging again to record levels, crossing 100,000 for the first time on Nov. 4, then reaching 200,000 on Nov. 27 before topping 300,000 on Jan. 2.