COVID-19 updates: No unemployment benefits for vaccine refusal in this state
The state just announced new COVID emergency plans.
The United States has been facing a COVID-19 surge as the more contagious delta variant continues to spread.
More than 686,000 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. The average number of daily deaths in the U.S. has risen about 20% in the last week, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The U.S. is continuing to sink on the list of global vaccination rates, currently ranking No. 46, according to data compiled by The Financial Times. Just 64.7% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the CDC.
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Biden announces 500 million Pfizer vaccine global donation
President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that the U.S. is donating another 500 million doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine to low- and middle- income countries around the globe.
"For every one shot we've administered to date in America, we have now committed to do three shots to the rest of the world," Biden said Wednesday.
Biden also announced the creation of a new U.S.-EU partnership focused on expanding global vaccination. He noted that the U.S. is working to ramp up manufacturing around the world.
"For example, our quad partnership with India, Japan and Australia is on track to help produce at least 1 billion vaccine doses in India to boost the global supply by the end of 2022. And we're providing financing and helping to strengthen manufacturing in South Africa and produce more than 500 million doses of J&J in Africa, for Africa, next year," Biden said.
Biden announced an initial 500-million-dose commitment in June. The U.S. has so far sent more than 160 million doses to 100 other countries, Biden said.
The latest announcement comes as the World Health Organization has criticized the U.S. for pushing booster doses while much of the world has yet to receive a single shot.
-ABC News' Sarah Kolinovsky
NYC cracking down on masks on subway
In New York City, officials say they'll be cracking down on mask enforcement on the subway, buses and commuter trains.
Compliance was near-universal earlier in the pandemic when ridership was way down. Now, subway compliance is at about 87%, according to MTA chief safety officer Patrick Warren.
"We want to move up to 100%," Warren said at a Wednesday news conference.
In recent months the MTA has issued only 41 summonses for noncompliance with mask requirements.
"We’re going to start handing out summonses more frequently," Warren said.
-ABC News' Aaron Katersky
States with low vaccination rates have much higher new death tolls
With more than 1,500 coronavirus-related deaths reported each day, the U.S. is now averaging the highest number of daily deaths in nearly seven months.
States with the lowest vaccination numbers are experiencing weekly death rates nearly four times higher than the most vaccinated states, according to an ABC News analysis of federal data.
The 10 states with the lowest vaccination rates, where under 45% of residents are fully vaccinated, averaged more than 7.39 deaths per capita each day. The 10 states with the highest vaccination rates, where more than 62% of residents are vaccinated, averaged about 1.89 deaths per capita.
The lowest vaccination rates are in West Virginia, Wyoming, Idaho, Alabama, Mississippi, North Dakota, Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee and Arkansas.
The highest vaccination rates are in Vermont, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Maryland, New York, Washington and New Mexico.
-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos
In hard-hit Alabama patients are 'dying at an alarming rate'
Alabama is experiencing a near record-breaking surge in COVID-19 deaths.
“We are seeing a decrease in the number of patients that are in the hospital, but unfortunately, it's not because all of them are getting better and going home to their families... these patients are dying,” Dr. Kierstin Kennedy, chief of hospital medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital, told ABC News Tuesday.
In July, there were only six COVID-19 patients in the UAB hospital, but within four weeks, the number skyrocketed over 100, according to Kennedy.
This latest wave of patients is much younger, primarily consisting of unvaccinated patients, Kennedy said.
“These patients are as sick if not sicker than elderly patients. They're staying in the hospital longer, and they're dying at an alarming rate,” Kennedy said. “It's unlike anything that I've seen.”
Alabama State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris said Friday, "2020 is going to be the first year that we know of in the history of our state where we actually had more deaths than births -- our state literally shrunk in 2020."
Across Alabama, more than 97% of ICU beds are in use, according to federal data.
Just 41.6% of the state's total population is fully vaccinated.
-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos
US Department of Education investigating Texas schools over mask mandate ban
In a letter to the Texas Education Agency, the U.S. Department of Education on Tuesday said it is beginning an investigation into Texas schools' ban on mask mandates, and how that could potential be an infringement of students’ civil rights.
The investigation will focus on "whether, in light of this policy, students with disabilities who are at heightened risk for severe illness from COVID-19 are prevented from safely returning to in-person education, in violation of Federal law,” the letter states.
The Department of Education’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights, Suzanne Goldberg, laid out the process of the investigation in the letter, but also made clear that it could be resolved at any time if masks in schools are reinstated.
"OCR’s Case Processing Manual provides several ways for this investigation to be resolved, including an option to reach a voluntary resolution agreement prior to the completion of an investigation,” the letter reads. “If TEA expresses an interest in resolving the investigation in this way and OCR determines this form of resolution is appropriate based on the investigation, we will follow the steps set out in Section 302 of the Case Processing Manual.”