Nearly 94% of all NFL players and 99% of the league's football-related staff members are at least partially vaccinated, ESPN reported Wednesday.

The season begins Thursday night with a match between the Dallas Cowboys and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The league has mandated that coaches and staff be vaccinated and has been going back and forth with the NFL Players Association about a requirement for players.

Currently, unvaccinated players are being tested daily and required to follow a series of protocols, while those fully vaccinated are tested once a week. Still, the NFL Players Association has now demanded all players be tested daily, regardless of their vaccination status.

In a blow to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who had banned mask mandates in schools, Tallahassee Judge John Cooper ruled to lift the stay Wednesday, preventing the state from enforcing the ban as an appeals court sorts out the legality.

The stay applies to Cooper's ruling last month that told the state it couldn't punish districts for requiring masks.

DeSantis has struggled to rein in the state's largest school systems as they implement mask mandates in defiance of state law.

At least 13 districts, including Florida's six largest, currently have mask requirements in place. The Florida Department of Education has threatened to withhold the salaries of school board members in most of these districts and has begun doing so in at least two cases.

None of the districts have indicated they plan to change course in the face of the threats.

A spokesperson for the governor, Taryn Fenske, said in a statement, "Today we plan to file our emergency motion to reinstate the stay, and we anticipate the appellate court will rule quickly, much like during the school re-opening case last year."

-ABC News' Will McDuffie

President Joe Biden will lay out a six-prong strategy to combat the delta variant on Thursday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.

"He's going to outline the next phase in the fight against the virus and what that looks like, including measures to work with the public and private sector, building on the steps that we've already announced, the steps we've taken over the last few months, requiring more vaccinations, boosting important testing measures and more, making it safer for kids to go to school," Psaki said Wednesday.

-ABC News' Molly Nagle

More than 95% of U.S. counties are now reporting high community transmission, the highest level since CDC tracking began, according to federal data.

The average daily case rate (per 100,000) is now higher among children ages 5 to 17 than all adult age groups.

Death rates are continuing to surge with about 1,000 Americans dying from COVID-19 each day, according to federal data.

Americans between the ages of 18 and 49 made up about one-third -- 34.4% -- of the patients hospitalized as of Aug. 28.

-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos

The daily death average in the U.S. has climbed to about 1,100, which is a 65.5% jump in the last month, according to federal data.

The daily case average in the U.S. is around 140,000, which is nearly four times higher than it was one year ago, according to federal data.

South Carolina and Kentucky have the highest case rate in the nation, followed by West Virginia, Wyoming, Alaska, Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi, according to federal data.

But some states are seeing progress. In Florida, daily cases are down by about 33% in the last two weeks.

-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos