COVID-19 updates: American Airlines to require employee vaccinations
The airline's CEO and president informed employees in a letter Friday.
The United States has been facing a COVID-19 surge as the more contagious delta variant continues to spread.
More than 700,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.7 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Just 65% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the CDC.
Latest headlines:
Over 400K Americans got booster shot at pharmacies this weekend: White House
Over 400,000 Americans received a booster shot at a pharmacy since Friday and nearly 1 million more have scheduled appointments in the next few weeks, according to the White House.
The U.S. is expected to hit a milestone of 200 million Americans with at least one shot on Wednesday, White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said.
The White House also touted another important milestone: racial equity in vaccinations nationwide.
According to a new Kaiser Family Foundation poll, 73% of Latinos and 70% of Black Americans have now gotten at least one shot, compared to 71% of white Americans. In May, this same poll found that 65% of white Americans were vaccinated compared to 56% of Black Americans.
-ABC News' Cheyenne Haslett
US hospitalizations drop
At the beginning of the month, there were more than 104,000 patients hospitalized with COVID-19. As of Tuesday, there were 81,000 patients hospitalized -- a drop of about 23,000 patients, according to federal data.
Nearly 50% of those patients -- 11,000 -- are from Florida, where cases and hospitalizations have been plummeting since mid-August.
In recent weeks, however, 16 states have reported higher hospital admission metrics, according to federal data: Colorado, Delaware, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and West Virginia.
Five states -- Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky and Texas -- have ICU capacities of 10% or less, according to federal data.
Alaska has the country's highest case rate, followed by West Virginia, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, North Dakota and Kentucky.
-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos
Vaccine mandates work, NYC mayor says
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said there's been a 45% increase in the daily vaccination rate since vaccine mandates were launched in July.
All city-run and private hospitals appear to be operating normally after health workers faced a midnight deadline to get vaccinated or risk losing their jobs. About 500 nurses for NYC Health + Hospitals are not at work.
NYC Health + Hospitals now has a 91% vaccination rate, up from 90% on Monday. City officials said about 5,000 employees were unvaccinated in the hospital system, down from more than 8,000 a week ago.
Northwell, New York state’s largest private hospital system, said it fired about two dozen "unvaccinated leaders," management level or above, for not getting vaccinated.
“We are now beginning the process to exit the rest of our unvaccinated staff," Northwell said in a statement.
-ABC News' Aaron Katersky
3rd Pfizer dose has similar side effects to 2nd dose: Preliminary CDC data
A new preliminary CDC report of 306 people who received a third Pfizer dose found that side effects were similar to the second dose.
The most common side effects are fatigue, headache and a sore arm. These symptoms usually last one or two days.
The CDC will continue monitoring third doses for any potential new side effects or safety issues but says so far no "unexpected" patterns have been identified.
-ABC News' Sony Salzman