COVID-19 updates: Pfizer vaccine highly effective in children 5-11
About 64.3 million Americans ages 12 and older are completely unvaccinated.
More than 731,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.9 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 66.9% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Latest headlines:
Cases on the rise in upper Midwest
Montana and Wyoming are now leading the nation in cases, followed by Idaho, Alaska, North Dakota and West Virginia, according to federal data.
Two states in the upper Midwest are seeing notable upticks in daily infections: Michigan and Minnesota have both seen case averages jump by more than 25% in the last month.
Hospital admissions in the U.S. have dropped by about 10.7% in the last week, according to federal data.
However, thousands of Americans are still dying every week. The daily death average -- 1,250 -- is higher than this time one year ago, before any vaccines were available.
-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos
States can reserve vaccines for 5 to 11-year-olds beginning Wednesday
Beginning Wednesday, states can start reserving vaccines for kids ages 5 to 11, though vaccines won't start shipping yet.
The government has purchased enough shots for all 28 million children ages 5 to 11 in the U.S.
On Oct. 26, the FDA advisory committee is expected to have a public discussion and have a non-binding vote on the matter. Within days of that vote, the FDA is expected to authorize the vaccine for kids ages 5 to 11.
On Nov. 2 and Nov. 3, a CDC committee is expected to have a public discussion and non-binding vote.
The CDC director is likely to issue a formal recommendation within hours of the expected Nov. 3 vote. Administration of vaccine for 5- to 11-year-olds may begin as soon as the CDC director signs off.
-ABC News' Eric M. Strauss
FDA could authorize Moderna, J&J booster shots Wednesday
The FDA could authorize Moderna and Johnson & Johnson booster shots for some populations as soon as Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the CDC independent advisory committee is meeting Wednesday to discuss vaccines in general. The committee is expected to debate Moderna and Johnson & Johnson on Thursday, discussing who boosters should be recommended for and if mixing and matching vaccines should be permitted.
A non-binding vote is expected at the end of Thursday.
The CDC director is expected to make the final recommendations shortly after the vote, which could come as soon as Thursday night or Friday morning.
-ABC News' Eric M. Strauss
NYC to mandate vaccine for municipal workers
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday announced a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all municipal workers.
The mandate is expected to include all employees from sanitation workers to office workers and will require some 161,000 workers to have their first dose by Oct. 29.
Municipal employees who do not get vaccinated will be placed on unpaid leave, and their future employment will be resolved in negotiations with individual labor unions.
Correction officers will face a later deadline of Dec. 1.
-ABC News' Aaron Katersky
US sees 50% drop in daily cases
Coronavirus infections are steadily falling across the country, thanks to significant declines in highly populated states such as Florida, Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.
The number of daily cases in the U.S. has dropped 50% since Sept. 1, with a 43% drop in hospitalizations and a 21% drop in daily deaths.
However, an uptick in cases in Northern states is causing some concern.
In recent weeks, coronavirus infections have been creeping up in several states in the Upper Midwest and the Northeast. Eight states — Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Mexico, and Vermont — have seen notable jumps in their case averages.
Experts have been warning for weeks that Northern states could begin to see upticks in the coming weeks as winter approaches, and people start to head indoors.
Alaska currently has the country's highest case rate, followed by Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, West Virginia, and North Dakota, which all with case rates above 400 per 100,000 people.
Daily deaths are slowly falling, but remain persistently high. The nation is still reporting an average of 1,250 new deaths each day, and over the last four days alone, the U.S. reported just under 7,000 confirmed COVID-19 deaths.
The death average is still about 6.5 times higher than in mid-July, when the national average had dropped to a near pandemic low of 192 deaths reported each day.
Nationally, hospitalization numbers have dropped to under 60,000 patients with COVID-19 currently receiving care, down from 104,000 patients in late August. Hospital admissions have also fallen by about 10.4% in the last week.
Approximately 113.5 million Americans remain completely unvaccinated. Just under 65.2 million of those people are over the age of 12. The other 48 million unvaccinated people are children under the age of 12.
— ABC News’ Arielle Mitropolous