Jesse Jackson, wife hospitalized with COVID-19
The civil rights pioneer was vaccinated in January.
The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.
More than 628,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.4 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 59.9% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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5 states at over 90% ICU capacity
Five states have fewer than 10% of their intensive care unit beds available, according to federal data.
Alabama has reached 100% ICU capacity, while Georgia is at 94% capacity, Florida at 93.18%, Mississippi at 93.01% and Texas at 92.72%, according to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Nationwide, nearly 78% of staffed adult ICU beds are occupied, according to HHS, as the U.S. continues to experience its steepest increase in COVID-19-related hospitalizations since the winter of 2020. There are nearly 93,000 patients now hospitalized across the country with COVID-19, according to federal data.
Overnight, the U.S. recorded its fourth day with more than 140,000 new COVID-19 cases in the last seven days. The country's new case average has now surged to 130,000, up 13.2% in the last week, an ABC News analysis found.
-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos
More than 1 million vaccine doses administered in past 24 hours: White House
More than 1 million COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered in the past 24 hours, including 562,000 first doses, a White House official confirmed to ABC News Thursday.
It's the first time 1 million doses in a single day have been logged in close to seven weeks, the official added, "a 31% week-over-week increase in the daily average of people completing their vaccine series."
-ABC News' Justin Gomez
Early vaccine program in US likely helped prevent 140,000 deaths: Research
The United States' early vaccine program likely helped prevent nearly 140,000 deaths during the first five months that shots were available, according to research published in the journal Health Affairs Wednesday.
Death reduction differed by state. New York saw the greatest reduction in COVID-19 deaths, while Hawaii saw the smallest benefit. "Overall, our analysis suggests that the early COVID-19 vaccination campaign was associated with reductions in COVID-19 deaths," the researchers wrote.
-ABC News' Eric Strauss
Booster shots akin to 'extra life jackets,' WHO says
Top scientists at the World Health Organization pushed back against the Biden administration's intention to supply booster shots to Americans beginning next month.
"We’re planning to hand out extra life jackets to people who already have life jackets, while we’re leaving other people to drown without a single life jacket," Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s health emergencies program, told reporters Wednesday. "That’s the reality."
As of Wednesday, 60% of Americans had received at least one dose and 51% were fully vaccinated, compared with 32% of people worldwide who've gotten at least one shot and 24% who are fully vaccinated, according to data from the CDC and Our World in Data.
-ABC News' Zoe Magee
Frontline workers warn of increase in pediatric COVID-19 related hospitalizations
The average number of people being admitted to the hospital each day with COVID-19 in the U.S. has surged by more than 480% since the end of June, marking the highest number of patients seeking care in over six months.
Doctors are warning of the alarming rates of people entering the hospital with life-threatening conditions.
"What was more terrifying this time is that these people are drowning, they're drowning, and it is an awful thing to see,” Dr. Enrique Lopez, surgical tntensivist at Phoebe Health in Georgia said Monday in a new video message.”And you would look up on the monitor and their oxygen saturation would be near perfect and they would just sit there just starving for air just begging to breathe.”
Nationally, more than 83,000 Americans are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 nationwide. Several Southern states are experiencing their worst surge yet, with front line workers raising the alarm about overwhelmed ICUs, and patients waiting in hallways at some hospitals.
"They're just saying over and over again I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I can't breathe, and it was so different than it was last time," said Lopez. "Now, it wants kids, and those ICUs for those pediatric patients are filling up."
Likewise, as cases have increased, so have pediatric hospital admissions, experts say.
"Even though it's uncommon, it can be very severe and even life threatening in some cases," said Dr. Zac Aldewereld, assistant professor of pediatric critical care medicine and pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Pittsburgh. "And yet we have a vaccine to prevent it."
-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos