Nearly 600 patients wait for hospital beds in Houston as city sees surge in COVID cases
According to the CDC, 46% of Texans have been fully vaccinated.
The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.
More than 620,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 and over 4.3 million people have died worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Just 59.1% 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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Pentagon to require vaccine for military
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will request approval that the COVID-19 vaccine become mandatory for all U.S. military service members by mid-September, a U.S. official confirmed.
-ABC News' Luiz Martinez
France's COVID health pass in effect
Starting Monday, France's residents and visitors must show a "Pass Sanitaire" -- or COVID health pass -- that gives the individual's vaccination status or negative test result. The pass is needed for long-distance travel by plane or train and to get into businesses including restaurants, malls and retirement homes.
The passes can be digital or in paper form. It's not required for kids under 12, but after Aug. 30, it will be required for those children ages 12 to 17.
-ABC News' Christine Theodorou
72% of US counties reporting high community transmission
Across the U.S., 72.48% of counties are reporting high community transmission and 16.55% are reporting substantial community transmission, according to federal data. Less than 5% of counties are reporting low transmission.
Louisiana has the nation's highest case rate, followed by Florida, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Oklahoma, Missouri, Georgia and Tennessee, according to federal data.
Nationally, the average number of new COVID-19 hospital admissions has surged to nearly 8,500 per day, up 306% in the last month, according to federal data.
In Mississippi, hospital admissions are up 375% in the last month, with only 35% of the state's total population fully vaccinated, according to federal data.
Hospital admissions in Arkansas jumped 158% in the last month.
-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos
No indications hard-hit Louisiana has reached peak: Governor
In hard-hit Louisiana, where the positivity rate is about 15%, Gov. John Bel Edwards told "GMA 3"there's no indication the state has reached the peak of this surge.
Louisiana has more than 2,700 COVID-19 patients in hospitals, the governor said, noting that during the previous surge's peak, hospitalizations only reached 2,100.
"We are having the worst situation in terms of the pandemic across the board here in Louisiana. And unfortunately, we don't see anything that indicates that we have peaked," he said. "Cases continue to go up, hospitalizations, and 20% of new infections over the past couple of weeks have been in children under 18."
The governor has reinstated a mask mandate for August as cases skyrocket.
Edwards noted that "the two sectors of the economy hit hardest by COVID related to oil and gas because the demand fell so much for those products, and then to tourism because people stopped traveling."
"This is a very serious blow. But we believe and hope that this is going to be a relatively temporary change, not unlike the one that we had last March, and that sometime over the next several weeks, we will get past this surge and then continue to get people vaccinated and that the confidence will increase," he said.
Requests for help grow in Louisiana
In Louisiana, there are "major concerns about potential massive influx of patients" and significant staffing shortages, according to a Department of Health and Human Services planning document.
American Medical Response, a private ambulance company, sent 50 paramedics and 25 trucks to the hard-hit state on Friday, the document said.
A 13-person team from the Public Health Service Commissioner Corps is headed to Hammond, Louisiana, on Monday and a 14-person team is headed to Children's Hospital New Orleans, the document said.
Louisiana has also requested support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for entry screenings at colleges and universities.
-ABC News' Brian Hartman