US reports highest weekly COVID-19 vaccinations since July 4
There were over 7 million shots in the past week, an official said Saturday.
The United States has been facing a COVID-19 surge as the more contagious delta variant continues to spread.
More than 712,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.8 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 66% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the CDC.
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New rapid test to cost less than $10
The planned retail cost for the newly approved over-the-counter rapid home COVID-19 test, "Flowflex," will be "less than $10 per test," White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients said at Wednesday's briefing
ACON, the manufacturers of Flowflex, confirmed with ABC News that the White House's statement is in line with their current estimated pricing.
The company told ABC News their goal when creating the at-home test was to make it, "more accessible and more affordable than the other over-the-counter tests in the market."
By comparison the two rapid test kits currently out on the market --Abbott's BinaxNow and Quidel's Quickvue-- each retail for $23.99.
Both BinaxNow and Quickvue kits come two tests, so that a person can test themselves twice over the course of a couple days. That means each individual test costs around $12 each.
-ABC News' Sasha Pezenik
Canada mandating vaccines for travel within the country
Vaccinations will be mandatory for plane and train travel within Canada for people 12 and older at the end of November, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday.
Trudeau also announced that federal workers must be fully vaccinated by Oct. 29.
About 82% of eligible Canadians are fully vaccinated.
-ABC News' Christine Theodorou
LA passes vaccine mandate for indoor restaurants, bars, gyms, malls and more
Los Angeles' city council passed an ordinance requiring proof of vaccination or a negative test within 72 hours for indoor restaurants, bars, gyms, malls, entertainment venues and personal care establishments. Grocery stores and pharmacies are not included.
The ordinance passed with 11 votes, short of the 12 votes need to pass with an urgency clause allowing it to take effect immediately. The mandate will go into effect Nov. 4
-ABC News' Kaylee Hartung
Nurse Sandra Lindsay, 1st to get vaccine in US, gets booster
New York nurse Sandra Lindsay, the first person in the U.S. to get a COVID-19 vaccine outside a clinical trial, received her Pfizer booster dose Wednesday at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New York.
Lindsay was joined by other health care workers who also got their first shots in December.
Child hospitalizations fall but kids still make up quarter of all new cases
Last week, the U.S. reported more than 173,000 child COVID-19 cases, marking the first week with fewer than 200,000 new cases reported since mid-August, according to a newly released weekly report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.
Even with the decline, last week children still accounted for 26.7% of reported weekly cases. (Children make up 22.2% of the population.)
The South is reporting the highest number of pediatric cases followed closely by the Midwest.
The number of children hospitalized with COVID-19 is also declining. About 1,700 children are currently hospitalized across the country, according to AAP and CHA.
Severe illness due to COVID-19 remains "uncommon" among kids, the two organizations wrote in the report. However, AAP and CHA warned that there is an urgent need to collect more data on the long-term consequences of the pandemic on children, "including ways the virus may harm the long-term physical health of infected children, as well as its emotional and mental health effects."
-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos