More than 880,000 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine donated by the United States arrived in Kenya on Monday morning.

The 880,460 doses were given to the East African nation by the U.S. government via the global vaccine-sharing scheme COVAX, according to a press release from the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), which is leading vaccine procurement and delivery efforts on behalf of COVAX. It is the first of two shipments, totaling 1.76 million donate doses.

The donation marks the first time that Kenya has received the Moderna vaccine, widening the portfolio of COVID-19 vaccines available for the country's ongoing rollout of its national immunization campaign. All Kenyans over the age of 18 are now eligible to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Kenya aims to vaccinate 10 million of its 53 million people by the end of the year.

So far, Kenya has reported more than 229,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including at least 4,497 deaths, according to the latest data from the Kenyan Ministry of Health.

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy defended the Biden administration's plans to  for many Americans the week of Sept. 20, despite criticism from the World Health Organization and others that the U.S. should not offer booster shots to Americans while many countries lag in vaccine access.

"We have to protect American lives and we have to help vaccinate the world because that is the only way this pandemic ends," Murthy told ABC "This Week" co-anchor Martha Raddatz.

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ABC News' Julia Cherner

Civil rights pioneer Jesse Jackson Sr. and his wife have been hospitalized after testing positive for COVID-19.

The 79-year-old and his wife, 77-year-old Jacqueline Jackson, are both being treated at Northwestern Hospital in Chicago, according to a statement from the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the nonprofit he founded in 1996. The statement said doctors were "monitoring the condition of both," but provided no further details.

Jackson was inoculated against the virus in January with the Pfizer vaccine. He also spent three weeks in a rehab center in February and March after gallbladder surgery.

The former Washington, D.C., shadow senator has been a prominent civil rights activist for 60 years, first joining forces with Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s and working with King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Jackson also ran for president in 1984 and 1988.

The activist was arrested earlier this month as part of a group in Washington, D.C., protesting restrictive voting rights being implemented in many states, including Georgia and Texas. One week earlier, he'd been arrested as part of a large group during a sit-in at Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's office.

The U.S. reported over 1 million COVID-19 vaccine doses administered for the third straight day, according to a White House official.

There were more than 1.05 million doses administered Friday, including 526,000 newly vaccinated, White House COVID-19 data director Cyrus Shahpar said on Twitter.

Nationwide, 60% of people ages 12 and up are now fully vaccinated, he said.

Patients in one region of Texas are experiencing extraordinarily long waits for hospital beds as COVID-19 continues to spread through the state.

Patients in southeast Texas, which includes Houston and the surrounding areas, are waiting in ambulances, hallways and more holding spaces for hospital beds to free up, Houston officials announced at a press briefing Tuesday.

Of the 678 patients holding in area emergency rooms with general admission orders, 265 of them have been infected with the virus, according the Southeast Texas Regional Advisory Council.

The ratio of patients who tested positive with COVID-19 is even worse for ICU admissions. Of the 112 patients in holding area emergency rooms who need an ICU bed, 75 have the virus, according to SETRAC.

-ABC News’ Gina Sunseri