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(NEW YORK) — Three major U.S. cities struggling to curb a surge in gun violence collectively had at least 64 people wounded and 12 dead, including a 7-year-old girl, in multiple shootings this weekend, according to police.

The shootings in New York, Philadelphia and Chicago came as all three cities have seen sharp increases in the numbers of shootings in 2021.

In Chicago, at least 46 people were shot between 5 p.m. on Friday and Sunday afternoon, four of them fatally, according to the Chicago Police Department. According to police incident reports reviewed by ABC News, 23 of the shootings occurred over just a 4 hour period between 12:26 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. on Sunday.

Around 3 p.m. on Sunday, a 7-year-old girl was killed and a 6-year-old girl was seriously wounded when someone opened fire on a parked vehicle they were sitting in the Belmont Central neighborhood on the city’s Northwest Side, police said. The 7-year-old was shot in the chest and later died at a hospital.

The 6-year-old girl was also shot in the chest and right armpit and was in serious but stable condition at Loyola University Medical Center Sunday evening, police said.

Police were working to identify the shooter or shooters involved in the incident. Police did not comment on a possible motive.

More than 250 children have been shot and 32 killed in Chicago this year, according to police data obtained by ABC station WLS.

Prior to this weekend, more than 2,123 people had been shot in Chicago this year, which is a 12% increase from the same time period in 2020, according to police department crime statistics. Before this weekend, Chicago has recorded 478 homicides, a 2% increase over last year at this time.

A shooting that occurred Friday night on the Eisenhower Expressway on the city’s West Side left one person dead and two others critically wounded. Illinois State Police said the three victims were in a car on Interstate 290 when a vehicle pulled up alongside them and someone inside opened fire.

In a shooting around 12:36 a.m. on Sunday, a woman and three men, ranging in age from 30 to 45, were shot and wounded as they stood outside a building in the Grand Crossing neighborhood on the city’s South Side, police said. The victims told police they did not see where the shots came from, according to an incident report.

Just after 2 a.m. Sunday, three teenagers, the youngest 15, were shot and wounded while standing outside a gas station in the city’s Chatham neighborhood on the South Side, police said. About 20 minutes later, three other people were shot while traveling in a car in the Mayfair neighborhood in northwest Chicago, police said.

The shootings in Chicago followed last weekend’s violence, which saw 73 people shot in the city, 11 fatally.

Chicago police Officer Ella French was among those gunned down last weekend when she and her two partners pulled over a car for having expired tags. One of French’s partners, a 39-year-old officer, was shot in the eye and remains in a hospital in critical condition with a bullet lodge in his brain, police said. Two brothers were arrested and charged in French’s slaying.

The Chicago Police Department has launched several programs this summer in an attempt to curb shootings and reduce the number of illegal guns on the streets.

Last month, Police Superintendent David Brown assembled a team of 50 officers to target gun traffickers, straw buyers, unscrupulous licensed firearms dealers and anyone who facilitates the flow of illegal guns into the city of Chicago.

11 people shot, 5 fatally in Philadelphia

Entering the weekend, 1,333 people had been shot in Philadelphia this year, a 19% increase from the same period a year ago, according to police department crime statistics. By the end of Friday, the city had recorded 329 homicides, a 26% increase from the same time period in 2020, the data shows.

Eleven more people were shot in Philadelphia over the weekend, five fatally, according to police.

“We need to stop this,” Philadelphia resident and retired Marine Jamal Johnson told ABC station WPVI in Philadelphia.

The weekend gun violence came as Johnson and a group of supporters are marching to Washington D.C. to draw attention to the escalating number of shootings and killings in their city. Johnson calls his action the “Stop Killing us March” and hopes to meet with members of the Congressional Black Caucus when he reaches the U.S. Capitol later this month.

“I would personally like them to encourage (Philadelphia) Mayor (Jim) Kenney to declare a state of emergency in Philadelphia due to gun violence,” Johnson said. “Most of all to save the lives of our children.”

Kenney said during a news conference last month that the city allocated over $150 million in its fiscal year 2022 budget to address gun violence. He said he has spoken to President Joe Biden “on the urgent need for new and enhanced approaches” to combat the problem.

“An emergency or disaster declaration would not change the direction of this work,” the mayor said.

In the weekend homicides in Philadelphia, a 25-year-old man was shot multiple times on a street in the Tioga-Nicetown neighborhood of North Philadelphia about 9 p.m. on Saturday, police said. The victim, whose name was not released, was taken to Einstein Medical Center and pronounced dead.

Around 5 a.m. Saturday, a man was found shot in the parking lot of a gas station in the Wynnefield neighborhood in the northwest part of Philadelphia police said. The man, who was not named by police, was pronounced dead at a hospital.

A 30-year-old man died after being shot multiple times around 12:44 a.m. Saturday on a street in the Grays Ferry neighborhood of South Philadelphia, police said. And a 46-year-old man died after being shot in the chest around 1:36 a.m. Saturday in the parking lot of the Rite Aid in southwest Philadelphia.

No arrests have been made in any of the homicides, police said.

More than 1,100 shot in New York City this year

In New York City, where more than 1,100 people have been shot this year, an 11% increase from a year ago, police said 15 more people were shot, three fatally, in 11 separate incidents on Friday night alone. The three homicides occurred in just 4 1/2 hours.

The deadly violence started about 12:20 a.m. on Saturday when police discovered a man lying next to a motorcycle with a bullet wound to the head in the Woodlawn neighborhood of the city’s Bronx borough, according to the New York Police Department. The victim, whose name was not immediately released, was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

About 40 minutes later, a 38-year-old man was shot in the Far Rockaway neighborhood of the city’s Queens borough, police said. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Just after 4 a.m. on Saturday, a 27-year-old man was shot dead while standing on a street in the Morris Heights neighborhood of the Bronx, police said. The shooting also left a 23-year-old man wounded.

No arrests have been made in the New York homicides.

Among the non-fatal New York shootings, four men were wounded just after midnight Saturday at the Louis Armstrong Houses in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in the city’s Brooklyn borough.

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(NEW YORK) — The remnants of Fred redeveloped into a tropical storm over the southeastern part of the Gulf of Mexico earlier Sunday morning.

Tropical Storm Fred has maximum sustained winds of 40 mph, is moving to the north-northwest at 10 mph and the center is currently about 235 miles south of Panama City, Florida.

A tropical storm warning has been issued for parts of the Florida Panhandle, from Navarre to the Wakulla/Jefferson County line. Parts of Florida, including Panama City, Pensacola, and southeastern Alabama are under a tropical storm watch.

As Fred continues to move across the open waters of the eastern Gulf of Mexico, scattered thunderstorms will be possible across parts of Florida throughout the day. The main impacts from Fred are expected on Monday.

Fred will likely strengthen more before closing in on the Florida Panhandle on Monday.

Heavy rain and gusty winds will begin to impact the state Monday morning, with the brunt of the impact arriving in the afternoon ahead of a likely landfall Monday evening along the panhandle. Over a half-foot of rain is possible in spots, with flash flooding and storm surge impacts possible during high tide.

Fred will rapidly weaken after landfall and then bring areas of heavy rain into parts of Alabama and Georgia through Tuesday morning. Flash flood watches are also in effect from Tallahassee, Florida, up into portions of southern Alabama and Georgia.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Grace currently has maximum sustained winds of 35 mph and is moving west-northwest at 15 mph. The center is about 200 miles east-southeast of Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic. Grace remains disorganized as it moves just south of Puerto Rico.

A tropical storm warning remains in effect for Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and parts of the Dominican Republic. A tropical storm watch remains in effect across Haiti, just a day after a devastating 7.2-magnitude earthquake killed hundreds, injured thousands and left widespread damage throughout the country.

Grace is forecast to impact Hispaniola Monday into Monday night, bringing torrential rain across the Dominican Republic and eventually parts of Haiti with over a half-foot of rain, flash flooding and mudslides possible in spots.

Grace will then likely move into the Gulf of Mexico, however, there remains a great deal of uncertainty, so the track possibilities could range from Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

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(WASHINGTON) — The upcoming 20th anniversary of 9/11, religious holidays and more pandemic restrictions amid a COVID-19 surge caused by the delta variant, could give rise to terrorist attacks in the U.S, the Department of Homeland Security is warning.

DHS’ National Terrorism Advisory System bulletin issued on Friday, warned that threats from domestic terrorists — individuals engaged in grievance-based violence — and foreign terrorists are exacerbated by the pandemic, “including grievances over public health safety measures and perceived government restrictions.”

The bulletin said that racially or ethnically motivated extremists will exploit the reintroduction of COVID-19 variants as a means to carry out attacks because of re-implemented pandemic restrictions.

This is the third NTAS bulletin the Department has issued since January.

The DHS also warned that because of the upcoming 9/11 anniversary foreign terrorists or people inspired by foreign terrorists might seek to carry out an attack around the anniversary.

Al-Qaeda released an issue of Inspire magazine for the first time in over four years, with the hopes of inspiring people to carry out attacks, according to the bulletin.

The bulletin also warned that domestic violent extremists have targeted houses of worship. “Historically, mass-casualty domestic violent extremist attacks linked to RMVEs have targeted houses of worship and crowded commercial facilities or gatherings,” it read and that some RMVEs (racially motivated violent extremists) “advocate via online platforms for a race war and have stated that civil disorder provides opportunities to engage in violence in furtherance of ideological objectives.”

Reopening of schools and other institutions, as well as religious holidays over the next few months could become “targets of opportunity for violence,” the bulletin further warned.

DHS also cautioned about foreign and domestic groups as well as foreign intelligence services (but did not specify which ones) that “continue to introduce, amplify, and disseminate narratives online that promote violence, and have called for violence against elected officials, political representatives, government facilities, law enforcement, religious communities or commercial facilities, and perceived ideologically-opposed individuals.”

ABC News previously reported on the Department’s concern about the conspiracy theory that former President Donald Trump will be reinstated as U.S. president last Friday.

“Law enforcement have expressed concerns that the broader sharing of false narratives and conspiracy theories will gain traction in mainstream environments, resulting in individuals or small groups embracing violent tactics to achieve their desired objectives. With a diverse array of threats, DHS is concerned that increased outbreaks of violence in some locations, as well as targeted attacks against law enforcement, may strain local resources,” the bulletin reads.

Some domestic violent extremists “continue to derive inspiration and obtain operational guidance through the consumption of information shared in certain online communities. This includes information regarding the use of improvised explosive devices and small arms.”

The Department also warned of nation-state adversaries attempting to sow politcal discord, citing examples of Russia, China and Iran attempting to cast doubt on vaccine efficacy.

“DHS remains committed to sharing timely information with the public about the heightened threat environment in order to protect communities across our country,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas in a statement on Friday. “Today’s NTAS Bulletin advises the public about the heightened threat landscape we face and how DHS is working with our partners, at every level of government and in the community, to combat domestic terrorism and targeted violence in all its forms. We are committed to ensuring every initiative undertaken by DHS in response to the threat is consistent with privacy protections, civil rights and civil liberties, First Amendment-protected rights, and other applicable laws.”

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(ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla.) — A Florida mother was fatally shot by her toddler while on a Zoom video call for work, prompting one of her colleagues to call 911, authorities said.

Shamaya Lynn, 21, was killed Wednesday at her apartment in Altamonte Springs in central Florida after one of her two toddlers picked up an unsecured, loaded handgun and shot her in the head, according to police.

A woman on the video call dialed 911 after she heard a noise, observed Lynn fall backward and then saw blood.

“I don’t know where to begin, but I’m on a live with a company, we just got hired. And one of the girls just passed out. She’s bleeding,” the coworker said in a 911 call released by police.

The woman told the dispatcher she could hear a baby crying but couldn’t see anything else.

“We heard a loud ‘kaboom’ and then she leaned back, and then we just got blood from her face,” the woman said.

A man who identified himself as Lynn’s boyfriend also called 911 after coming home and finding her unconscious and bleeding.

“Hurry!” he told the 911 dispatcher. “There’s blood everywhere.”

The man, who told police he was the father of the two children, was handcuffed at the scene due to his “state and guns being present in the apartment,” the police report stated.

Responding officers and paramedics rendered aid but couldn’t prevent Lynn from dying due to her injuries, police said.

“This young mother lost her life after one of her toddlers found an unsecured handgun in the apartment,” Sgt. Rob Ruiz of the Altamonte Springs Police Department told reporters. “We do have a responsibility as adults to keep people safe, especially when you own a firearm.”

Detectives are working with the Seminole County State Attorney’s Office to determine whether charges should be filed against the children’s father, who owned the gun, police said. The case was still being reviewed as of Saturday evening, Ruiz told ABC News.

The father was questioned but not arrested, ABC News Orlando affiliate WFTV reported.

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(BETHEL, Penn.) — A search is underway for a 3-year-old Pennsylvania boy who went missing from a camping area along the Allegheny River in Bethel Township Friday afternoon.

Pennsylvania Police in Kittanning are searching for Dwight Dinsmore, who is described as 3-foot-5 blonde with blue eyes, last seen wearing a gray T-shirt with a black collar and a motorcycle depicted on the front, police said in a news release.

Police said the search started around 3:15 p.m. Friday, in a news release.

The search was conducted by several local police departments, K9 units, state police and family members, but was called off Friday evening due to inclement weather, officials said.

It will resume Saturday morning.

Police are asking anyone who sees the child to contact them at 724-543-2011 immediately.

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(NEW YORK) — Tropical depression Fred continues to produce heavy rain across central Cuba as of Saturday morning.

Fred is located about 90 miles south of Key West, Florida, and moving northwest at 13 mph.

Sustained winds are traveling at 35 mph with higher gusts.

Tropical storm conditions are expected in portions of the warning area across the Florida Keys later Saturday.

A tornado or two may even be possible across central and South Florida.

Fred is expected to strengthen to a tropical storm as it passes near or west of the lower Florida Keys on Saturday afternoon.

It will move across the eastern Gulf of Mexico overnight and into Sunday, and move inland over the northern Gulf Coast on Monday.

Through Monday, 3 to 5 inches of rain are anticipated across the Keys and South Florida.

Across the Florida Big Bend and Panhandle, 3 to 7 inches with isolated maximum totals of 10 inches are expected. Flooding may occur. From Monday onward, heavy rain and flood impacts could extend into inland portions of the Southeast and into the southern and central Appalachians and Piedmont, as Fred interacts with a front in the area.

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(BENA, Minn.) — A 3-year-old girl was fatally shot by a 5-year-old boy in a home in Bena, Minnesota, early Friday, officials said.

The Cass County Sheriff’s Office received a report of an accidental shooting around 3:50 a.m.

When deputies responded they learned the little girl “had been shot by accidental gunfire” by the boy, Sheriff Tom Burch said in a news release.

She was transported to the Deer River hospital by family members and intercepted by the Deer River Ambulance and lifesaving efforts were attempted on the child.

The girl was pronounced dead at the Deer River Hospital.

An autopsy is pending with the Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office and an investigation is underway.

The relationship between the boy and girl is not clear. It’s also not know how the child got a hold of the firearm.

It’s not clear whether possible criminal charges will be filed in the fatal incident.

So far this year 968 children have been killed by guns, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

In 2019, 3,371 American children and teens were killed with guns, the Children’s Defense Fund, a nonprofit child advocacy and research group reported.

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(NEW YORK) — A teenager who was struck by lightning Thursday at a New York City beach has died, officials said.

Carlos Ramos, 13, of the Bronx, died at Jacobi Medical Center, city officials confirmed to ABC News Friday.

He was one of seven people who were struck by lightning while at Orchard Beach in the Bronx around 5 p.m. when a fast-moving storm approached, according to city officials.

Stacy Saldivar, 13, was among those struck when she and her parents and two sisters were running off the beach, she told New York ABC station WABC outside the hospital Friday.

“A huge lightning just went in front of me, hit in front of me and I passed out,” Saldivar told the station. “Then I was shaking and blood started coming out of my mouth.”

When she woke up, she was in the ambulance, she said.

The lightning felt like “a little tingle, it really hurt a lot,” Saldivar said. “I feel lucky because Jesus revived me.”

Saldivar told WABC she didn’t know Ramos.

“I feel lucky because Jesus revived me,” she said.

The others struck included a 41-year-old man and a 33-year-old woman and three other children — two boys ages 14 and 5 and a 12-year-old girl, according to city officials.

EMS responded and transported them to the hospital, officials said. They are expected to survive, WABC reported.

Prior to the incident, lifeguards had cleared all swimmers from the water, and NYC Parks staff instructed visitors to clear the beach, according to NYC Parks Department spokeswoman Meghan Lalor.

“Our hearts go out to the victims of this tragic incident,” Lalor said in a statement.

ABC News’ Aaron Katersky contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.

More than 618,000 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 58.9% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Here’s how the news is developing Friday. All times Eastern:

Aug 13, 5:36 pm
ACP says masks should be required in schools

The American College of Physicians said Friday that masks should be required in all schools “as part of a comprehensive effort to reduce the spread of COVID-19.”

The statement follows similar recommendations from the American Association of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and comes as some school districts have been defying bans on masks mandates in states including Texas and Florida.

“Masks are a key public health tool in keeping everyone in our school communities safe,” ACP President Dr. George Abraham said in a statement. “Especially with such a large segment of our schools’ populations unable to yet access COVID-19 vaccines, masks remain a necessity in our fight to control the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The ACP is the largest medical specialty society in the U.S., with over 161,000 internal medicine members.

Aug 13, 4:45 pm
CDC director endorses recommendation for additional dose for immunocompromised

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s advisory panel voted unanimously Friday to recommend an additional dose of Pfizer or Moderna for immunocompromised people. (This recommendation applies only to people who already had an initial series of mRNA — it does not apply to people who received J&J.)

Immunocompromised people will not need a doctor’s note, prescription or proof of their condition to get their third dose, CDC officials said at Friday’s meeting.

“This is a self-attesting. We do not anticipate — we are not recommending that either prescriptions or a physician sign off, or be necessary for individuals to receive an additional dose of mRNA if they’re immunocompromised,” said Dr. Kathleen Dooling, Medical Officer for the Division of Viral Diseases, the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, and the CDC.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky signed off on the recommendation later on Friday.

-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett, Sasha Pezenik

Aug 13, 4:44 pm
Mississippi governor says request for military hospital ship denied

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said Friday that the state’s request for a military hospital ship has been denied by the federal government.

Reeves said the request for a ship “was as much about the over 500 personnel that come with it as it was the actual physical facilities.”

“I don’t anticipate that the USS Comfort is going to come to Mississippi, although we would welcome any of the 550 health care professionals that are on that particular facility that the federal government would like to send us,” he said.

-ABC News’ Will McDuffie

Aug 13, 4:21 pm
In Dallas ‘your child will wait for another child to die’

Dallas has no ICU beds left for children.

“That means if your child’s in a car wreck, if your child has a congenital heart defect or something and needs an ICU bed, or more likely if they have COVID and need an ICU bed, we don’t have one,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said at a Workers Defense Action Fund event.

“Your child will wait for another child to die,” Jenkins added. “Your child will just not get on the ventilator, your child will be CareFlighted to Temple or Oklahoma City or wherever we can find them a bed, but they won’t be getting one here unless one clears. And that’s been true for 24 hours.”

Aug 13, 4:15 pm
Daily case average has skyrocketed nearly 884% since mid-June

The daily case average in the U.S. has surged to about 114,000, skyrocketing nearly 884% since mid-June, according to federal data.

Several states, including Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana and Mississippi, are now experiencing their worst surge yet, averaging more daily cases than at any point in the pandemic, according to federal data. New York City’s case average is now nearly five times higher than it was one month ago.

And more people are dying every day.

The nation’s daily death average has now climbed to nearly 500, a 183% jump in the last month. Seven weeks ago, daily deaths were at their lowest point since late March 2020.

-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos

Aug 13, 3:29 pm
Kids must get caught up on routine vaccinations, officials say

Federal health officials said Friday it is now more critical than ever for parents to get their kids’ routine vaccinations.

“There are a lot of vaccine doubters,” said Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, “in part because we have been so successful with vaccination.” People no longer know what the havoc that diseases like polio, measles or smallpox can cause, because we no longer have them around, and thus, “we’re in some ways, victims of our own success,” he said.

Dr. Anne Edwards of the American Academy of Pediatrics noted that pediatricians are seeing a large number of respiratory illnesses now, and not all are COVID-19. She said that underscores the importance of having their routine vaccinations.

-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos

Aug 13, 3:03 pm
Canada to require plane passengers get vaccinated

The Canadian government will soon mandate vaccinations for commercial plane travelers, cruise ship passengers and people on trains between provinces, according to The Associated Press.

Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said this will go into effect “as soon as possible in the fall and no later than the end of October,” according to the AP.

Aug 13, 2:57 pm
Louisiana hospitalizations at highest point of pandemic

Hard-hit Louisiana has 2,907 COVID-19 patients in hospitals — more than any point of the pandemic so far, the state’s Department of Health said Friday.

Louisiana’s Ochsner Health said they have 1,063 hospitalized COVID-19 patients in their system, exceeding all previous surges. Of those patients, 88.99% are unvaccinated, officials said.

Gov. John Bel Edwards said 399 patients in the state are on ventilators.

Fifty-seven people died of COVID-19 in Louisiana in the last 24 hours, the health department said.

The governor warned Friday that Louisiana isn’t near the peak of this surge and hospital leaders are more alarmed now than at any point in the pandemic.

“We are really close to the breaking point,” Edwards said.

Aug 13, 1:46 pm
Feds send ‘fatality management trailers’ to Texas

Federal officials are deploying extra resources to COVID-19 hot spots, including sending five “fatality management trailers” to Texas, according to a federal planning document obtained by ABC News.

Oklahoma was set to receive 100 ventilators on Thursday, according to the planning document, while Mississippi has requested enough medical personnel to staff more than 1,000 beds.

Aug 13, 11:49 am
Chicago requires school employees to be vaccinated

Chicago Public Schools, the nation’s third-largest school district, is requiring all employees to be vaccinated.

Seventy-eight percent of district employees were already fully vaccinated, partially vaccinated or had a vaccination scheduled as of June, the district said.

“For the social and emotional well-being of our young people, they need to be in school, and the vaccine adds another layer of protection to our plan to safely re-open schools,” the city’s department of public health commissioner, Allison Arwady, said in a statement.

Chicago’s school year starts on Aug. 30.

-ABC News’ Whitney Lloyd

Aug 13, 8:03 am
Former acting CDC head talks next steps for booster shots

Dr. Richard Besser, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and former acting director of the CDC, told Good Morning America that he expects booster shots will “be available to people with immune disorders very quickly.”

The FDA announced late Thursday that immunocompromised Americans – such as cancer patients, transplant recipients, people with HIV and people on immunosuppressant drugs — will be able to get a third shot of Pfizer or Moderna.

But Besser stressed, “I think about this less as a booster shot” and more of “a recognition that for certain people with immune problems, two doses wasn’t enough” and “the third dose is necessary for them to get the same high level of protection that the rest of people do.”

The CDC panel is expected to vote to recommend the third dose when it meets Friday at 11 a.m. and CDC Director Rochelle Walensky will likely sign off after a Friday afternoon vote.

Aug 13, 5:27 am
Alabama children’s hospital sees rise in patients

Children’s of Alabama reported a significant increase in the number of COVID-19 positive patients being treated at the hospital in recent weeks.

As of Thursday, the hospital said it is treating 22 COVID-19 positive patients, five of whom are on ventilators.

The hospital said in January, at the height of the last surge, their highest number of patients was 13.

“There are three proven ways to slow the spread of this highly transmissible strain of the virus: Vaccination for everyone 12 and up, masking, especially when indoors, and social distancing,” the hospital wrote in a Facebook statement.

Aug 12, 11:48 pm
FDA authorizes booster shot for immunocompromised

Immunocompromised Americans will be able to get a third shot of either of the mRNA vaccines, Pfizer or Moderna, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced late Thursday.

The booster will be targeted specifically for people who did not have an ideal immune response to their initial vaccines, which has proven to be the case for many cancer patients, transplant recipients, people with HIV and people on immunosuppressant drugs.

“The country has entered yet another wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the FDA is especially cognizant that immunocompromised people are particularly at risk for severe disease,” acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock said in a statement. “After a thorough review of the available data, the FDA determined that this small, vulnerable group may benefit from a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna Vaccines.”

For more, read ABC News’ full story on the authorization.

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(MINNEAPOLIS) — More than a year after the murder of George Floyd by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, the city is putting its issues with police brutality in the spotlight once again.

This time, the power is in the hands of voters, who will take to the ballot box in November to decide whether to replace the existing Minneapolis Police Department.

The vote would be on whether to change the city charter and implement a department of public safety instead, which activists say would take on a public-health approach to policing — opting for social workers and violence interrupters over the police-only model that the city has now.

Advocates have said that many cases in which police are called can often be resolved by others. Detractors say the move will undermine public safety. In either case, police reform has been a fraught issue, especially in the wake of Floyd’s death, with deep divisions forming over whether to “defund” the police or change the way departments operate.

“We want to do something different, to actually make real concrete changes, so that we don’t have to revisit this feeling of powerlessness, hopelessness, helplessness — so that we don’t have to continue to bury people year after year,” said JaNaé Bates, the communications director at Yes 4 Minneapolis, a leading coalition of activists in the effort to replace the police department.

The charter change would also put the city council in charge of the department, instead of the mayor, and remove requirements to hire police based on the city’s population size.

Activists say this effort is inspired by other policies and practices from across the country — and that they’ve taken into consideration what has worked and what has failed.

Local opponents believe the charter change has the potential to rid the city of police altogether, due to language that says police officers will respond to calls “when necessary.”

“These are trojan horses backed by radicals to achieve their goal of police defunding and abolition,” said a statement on the Operation Safety Now website. Operation Safety Now is a local pro-police political advocacy group.

The organization stated: “We are against police defunding — and the “police-less society” envisioned by some council members and their radical supporters. We need more cops, not fewer.”

Mayor Jacob Frey, a member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party, also rejects the effort. In a statement to the press, his office said he “appreciates the careful work and thorough analysis done by city staff to prepare fair and accurate language for voters to consider this fall,” but will not be signing onto the proposal.

Frey believes that id the city council is in charge of the department, it could lead to a major setback for “accountability and good governance.”

Residents like Bates and city council members like Steve Fletcher say that Minneapolis has struggled with racist policing for decades.

The Mayor’s office did not respond to ABC News’ requests for comment.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that in the past 20 years, more than 200 people have been killed in “a physical confrontation with law enforcement” in Minnesota. Only 7% of Minnesotans are Black, but Black victims accounted for 26% of these deaths.

At least 36 of these deaths occurred in Minneapolis. And last year, Black youths were disproportionately incarcerated — making up 55% of the youth incarceration population.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Justice Department also opened a pattern or practice investigation into the City of Minneapolis and the Minneapolis Police Department earlier this year.

“We have had a long history of producing racially unjust outcomes in our overall system and policing,” Fletcher said. “We can’t continue to operate this way.”

Minneapolis police chief Medaria Arradondo was among several other Black officers who sued MPD for racial discrimination in 2007, MPR News reported, which was settled for almost $1 million.

To solve these issues, community leaders involved in Yes 4 Minneapolis have adopted the tactics to amend the charter in ways that have proven to work.

One of the programs that inspired this public health approach was the Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets (CAHOOTS) program in Oregon, which started in 1969. The program sends out two-person teams, including a medic and a crisis worker with training in the mental health field, to crises involving mental illness, homelessness, and addiction instead of policing.

Out of roughly 24,000 CAHOOTS calls in 2019, police backup was requested only 150 times, according to the organization’s website.

The Support Team Assisted Response program in Denver started in 2020, and it similarly sends pairs of mental health and medical professionals to respond to low-level calls instead of sending law enforcement.

And disbanding efforts are nothing new either — Camden, New Jersey successfully disbanded its police department in 2013 and rebuilt the police department from the ground up, with new trainings, new officers, and a new department culture against brutality.

“We’re integrating our police officers with other services that we know, allow qualified professionals to handle things that they’re prepared and trained to handle,” Bates said. “Having mental health responders, social workers, violence interrupters different interventions for folks experiencing homelessness, and drug crisis — those things are things that should be happening within fully integrated departments that include police.”

More than 20,000 signatures gave the proposed Minneapolis charter change measure a spot on the ballot, according to Bates, and roughly $1 million was raised for the effort.

Like many states, cities, and counties across the nation, some reform efforts have already been in the works in Minneapolis — like banning chokeholds and neck restraints and requiring officers to intervene in excessive uses of force.

The city council also cut $8 million from the mayor’s proposed police budget and diverted to mental health and violence prevention units in the department.

Shortly after Floyd’s murder, City Council members tried to implement the charter change, but the council failed to meet the deadlines necessary to get it on the November 2020 ballot.

Now, they hope to set an example for policing efforts nationwide, as the country continues to confront police brutality.

“Every city is facing some version of this,” Fletcher said about the efforts to reimagine policing. “I really believe that this Minneapolis is going to rise to the occasion and create a system that is far more compassionate, far more equitable, and far more effective than the old system of policing that we’ve inherited.”

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