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.
Latest headlines:
White House to announce $1 billion purchase of rapid at-home tests
The Biden administration is set to announce Wednesday that it's buying another $1 billion of rapid at-home tests, on top of the $2 billion investment in September.
White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients is expected to make the announcement at the afternoon COVID-19 briefing.
With this new purchase, combined with September's investment and the FDA approval of the ACON rapid test money, the White House says the U.S. is now on track to quadruple the number of rapid at-home tests available to Americans in December.
A White House official emphasized that this is not just about more tests on the market, but more affordable tests on the market.
-ABC News' Karen Travers
Hospital admissions on the decline
Daily hospital admissions have dropped by 14.6% in the last week, according to federal data.
Even so, ICU capacities remain at critical levels in several states. In Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Idaho and Texas, about 10% or less space is available.
About 70,000 Americans are currently in hospitals with COVID-19.
Alaska currently has the country's highest infection rate, followed by Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming and Idaho, according to federal data.
Despite high vaccination rates in the Northeast, infection levels in Maine are reaching peak-pandemic records, while case numbers in New Hampshire and Vermont are steadily inching up.
-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos
Nearly 200K rapid at-home antigen tests recalled
Ellume is recalling nearly 200,000 rapid at-home antigen tests out of concerns over an abnormally high rate of false positives.
Roughly 427,000 test kits, including thousands sent to retailers and some provided to the Department of Defense, were impacted. About 195,000 of these kits are still unused and subject to the recall, and about 202,000, have already been used. Of those, there were about 42,000 positive results, of which as many as a quarter, or perhaps fewer, of those positives could have been inaccurate, though it's difficult to determine an exact ratio.
CEO Sean Parsons said in a statement, "I offer my sincere apologies -- and the apologies of our entire company --for any stress or difficulties they may have experienced because of a false positive result," Parsons said.
Ellume said it identified the root cause as an issue in variation with one of the kit's components. The company said it has "implemented additional controls" and is "continuing to work on resolving the issue that led to this recall."
Ellume is notifying affected customers and urging confirmatory tests.
-ABC News' Sasha Pezenik
More Americans died of COVID this year than all of 2020
More Americans have died from COVID-19 this year than from the virus in all of 2020, according to newly updated data from Johns Hopkins University.
More than 353,000 COVID-19 deaths have been reported since Jan. 1, compared with 352,000 COVID-19 deaths in the first 10 months of the pandemic.
Over the last month, the U.S. has reported more than 47,000 deaths.
-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos
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.