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.
Latest headlines:
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
US surgeon general defends plan for booster shots
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.
ABC News' Julia Cherner