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(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.3 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 798,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

About 60.9% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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

Dec 14, 2:52 pm
Omicron will ‘for sure’ become dominant strain in US: Fauci

Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN Tuesday that omicron will “for sure” become the dominant strain in the U.S. given how rapidly it is spreading.

“Omicron is going to be a challenge because it spreads very rapidly,” Fauci said.

Fauci reiterated that omicron so far appears to be less severe, adding, “Whether it is inherently less pathogenic as a virus or whether there is more protection in the community, we’re just going to have to see when it comes in the United States.”

-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos

Dec 14, 2:21 pm
Cornell moves exams online due to ‘substantial’ number of suspected omicron cases

Cornell University is moving into a “level red” alert after a “significant” number of suspected omicron cases were detected among student samples.

“While we must await confirmatory sequencing information to be sure that the source is Omicron, we are proceeding as if it is,” university president Martha Pollack wrote in a letter to the community.

All final exams will be online beginning Tuesday, Pollack announced, and libraries and fitness centers are closed.

All undergraduate events are canceled, as is Saturday’s recognition ceremony for December graduates, Pollack said.

Cornell has recorded more than 600 confirmed cases among students and staff in the last week alone, according to the university dashboard. While no infected students are seriously sick, Pollack said the university has “a role to play in reducing the spread.”

-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos, Chris Donato

Dec 14, 12:34 pm
Omicron ‘spreading at a rate we have not seen,’ WHO says

“Omicron is spreading at a rate we have not seen with any previous variant,” World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned Tuesday.

Omicron has been reported in 77 countries, he said, adding that the new variant is likely in most countries.

Tedros said health officials are “concerned that people are dismissing omicron as mild.”

“Even if omicron does cause less severe disease, the sheer number of cases could once again overwhelm unprepared health systems,” he said.

-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou

Dec 14, 11:41 am
England to lift travel ban on southern African nations

British Transport Secretary Grant Schapps announced Tuesday that England will remove all southern African nations from its travel red list.

After the omicron variant was first discovered in South Africa and Botswana in November, several countries around the world, including England and the United States, imposed travel bans on a swath of nations in southern Africa.

The World Health Organization warned that blanket travel bans will not prevent the international spread of omicron, deemed a “variant of concern,” and that restrictions place a heavy burden on lives and livelihoods.

The countries of Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe will be taken off England’s travel red list on Wednesday at 4 a.m. GMT, according to Schapps, who noted that all current testing measures remain in place.

“As always, we keep all our travel measures under review and we may impose new restrictions should there be a need to do so to protect public health,” Schapps wrote on Twitter Tuesday.

Despite the travel bans, the heavily mutated variant has taken a foothold in London. British Health Secretary Sajid Javid told Parliament on Monday that omicron accounts for more than 44% of COVID-19 infections in the U.K. capital and it’s expected to become the dominant variant there by Wednesday, overtaking the highly contagious delta variant.

Addressing Parliament again on Tuesday, the health secretary called omicron “a grave threat” and said the “race” to get as many people vaccinated and boosted “is new national mission.”

“Scientists have never seen a COVID-19 variant that’s capable of spreading so rapidly,” Javid said.

-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou

Dec 14, 7:55 am
Africa clocks fastest surge in cases this year, but deaths remain low: WHO

An 83% surge in newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 during the past week in Africa, driven by the delta and omicron variants, is causing fewer deaths than previous surges, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.

But the WHO cautioned that more waves of COVID-19 infections could be building as updated forecasts warn Africa, the world’s second-largest and second-most-populous continent, may not reach 70% vaccine coverage until late 2024.

Africa recorded more than 196,000 new cases for the week ending on Dec. 12, an increase of around 107,000 from the previous week, bringing the cumulative count since the pandemic began to 8.9 million cases, according to the WHO. The number of new cases is currently doubling every five days, the shortest reported this year. While the speed of the spread is fast, the WHO said, deaths remain low and even dropped by 19% last week compared with the previous week.

Africa is currently in its fourth wave of the pandemic, during which there were a little over 3,000 deaths reported in the first three weeks. About half as many cases were reported in the same time frame during the continent’s third wave, which was fueled by the highly contagious delta variant, according to the WHO.

The WHO said this spike in infections coupled with low hospitalizations is particularly evident in South Africa, which saw a 66% rise in new cases last week compared with the previous seven days. While hospital admissions have jumped by 65% in the past week, the bed occupancy rate for intensive care units remains low at 7.5%, with 14% of the hospitalized patients receiving supplemental oxygen. Though the number of deaths also remain low, the WHO warned that this pattern may change in the coming weeks.

“We are cautiously optimistic that deaths and severe illness will remain low in the current wave, but slow vaccine rollout in Africa means both will be much higher than they should be,” Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO’s regional director for Africa, said in a statement Tuesday. “We’ve known for quite some time now that new variants like Beta, Delta or Omicron could regularly emerge to spark new outbreaks globally, but vaccine-deprived regions like Africa will be especially vulnerable.”

As of Tuesday, only 20 African countries had vaccinated at least 10% of their population — the global target the WHO had set for September 2021. Only six African nations have hit the year-end target of fully vaccinating 40% of their population, while just two countries — Mauritius and Seychelles — have reached the 70% coverage seen as essential for controlling the pandemic. At the current pace, the WHO estimates that it will take until May 2022 before Africa as a whole reaches 40% coverage and August 2024 before it reaches 70%.

“In a world where Africa had the doses and support to vaccinate 70% of its population by the end of 2021—a level many wealthy countries have achieved—we probably would be seeing tens of thousands of fewer deaths from COVID-19 next year,” Moeti said. “But we can still save many lives if we can accelerate the pace of vaccination in early 2022.”

Dec 14, 6:45 am
Pfizer says ‘game changer’ pills could save thousands of lives

Pfizer’s forthcoming COVID-19 treatment could be authorized for emergency use in the United States by the end of this year or early next year, pending the Food and Drug Administration’s regulatory timeline, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told ABC News.

The pharmaceutical giant announced Tuesday that it has submitted promising new data to the FDA, including lab experiments showing its oral antiviral medicine, Paxlovid, will likely work against the omicron variant. And in updated clinical trial data, Pfizer found the treatment reduces the risk of being hospitalized or dying by 89% when taken within three days of being diagnosed with COVID-19, and 88% when taken within five days of being diagnosed among high-risk, unvaccinated patients.

“It is a game changer,” Bourla told ABC News. “But at the same time, I want to emphasize that no one should use the existence of the pill as an excuse to avoid vaccination.”

Bourla said the medicine could save thousands of lives.

“We did some calculations how many deaths or hospitalizations can be avoided based on the current U.S. mortality rates and the current U.S. hospitalization rates,” he said. “On the back-of-the-envelope calculation, we estimate that 100,000 people if they take the pill, we will avoid 6,000 hospitalizations and 1,200 deaths approximately.”

-ABC News’ Sony Salzman

Dec 14, 6:45 am
Pfizer says COVID-19 pills could be FDA authorized by end of year

Pfizer’s forthcoming COVID-19 treatment could be authorized for emergency use in the United States by the end of this year or early next year, pending the Food and Drug Administration’s regulatory timeline, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told ABC News.

The pharmaceutical giant announced Tuesday that it has submitted promising new data to the FDA, including lab experiments showing its oral antiviral medicine, Paxlovid, will likely work against the omicron variant. And in updated clinical trial data, Pfizer found the treatment reduces the risk of being hospitalized or dying by 89% when taken within three days of being diagnosed with COVID-19, and 88% when taken within five days of being diagnosed among high-risk, unvaccinated patients.

“It is a game changer,” Bourla told ABC News. “But at the same time, I want to emphasize that no one should use the existence of the pill as an excuse to avoid vaccination.”

Bourla said the medicine could save thousands of lives.

“We did some calculations how many deaths or hospitalizations can be avoided based on the current U.S. mortality rates and the current U.S. hospitalization rates,” he said. “On the back-of-the-envelope calculation, we estimate that 100,000 people if they take the pill, we will avoid 6,000 hospitalizations and 1,200 deaths approximately.”

-ABC News’ Sony Salzman

Dec 14, 5:57 am
France mulls tightening entries from UK due to omicron

France is considering tightening restrictions for travelers arriving from the United Kingdom, where the omicron variant appears to be spreading swiftly.

“Regarding Britain, the current rule is to show a negative test less than 48 hours old in order to enter France,” French government spokesman Gabriel Attal told France Info radio on Tuesday. “But we are always looking at means to tighten the framework, we are currently working on that and we should, I think, come to a conclusion in the coming days.”

Dec 14, 5:44 am
Mainland China confirms 1st case of omicron variant

China has confirmed its first case of the omicron variant on the mainland, state-run media reported Monday.

The variant was detected in a traveler from overseas who arrived in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin on Dec. 9. The individual tested positive for COVID-19 last week and subsequent genome sequencing confirmed it was the omicron variant.

The patient, who showed no symptoms, is being treated in isolation at a hospital, according to state-run media.

Dec 14, 5:31 am
UK reports 1st death from omicron variant

At least one person has died in the United Kingdom after being infected with the omicron variant, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Monday.

It’s the first publicly confirmed death globally from the new variant of the novel coronavirus, which was initially identified in southern Africa last month and has since spread rapidly around the world. Deaths from omicron may have already occurred in other countries but no others have been publicly confirmed yet.

Speaking to reporters during a visit to a vaccination clinic in London, Johnson said the death was a patient who had been diagnosed at a hospital but gave no further details.

“Sadly, at least one patient has now been confirmed to have died with omicron,” the prime minister said. “So I think the idea that this is somehow a milder version of the virus, I think that’s something we need to set on one side and just recognize the sheer pace at which it accelerates through the population. So the best thing we can do is all get our boosters.”

Dec 13, 9:59 pm
NFL to require vaccinated Tier 1 and 2 employees receive boosters by Dec. 27

The NFL will require that all its vaccinated Tier 1 and 2 employees receive their COVID-19 booster shots by Dec. 27, according to a memo they sent all 32 teams on Monday.

This group of employees includes coaches and other employees who work closely with players and help in essential league operations.

“On November 29, the CDC issued a study showing that the effectiveness of the approved COVID-19 vaccines may decrease over time and has recommended that all eligible vaccinated individuals over the age of 18 should receive a booster shot,” the memo reads. “Given the increased prevalence of the virus in our communities, our experts have recommended that we implement the CDC’s recommendation.”

The memo came as 36 players were added to the league’s COVID-19 reserve list. Players are currently not required to receive boosters, but in Monday’s memo, the NFL said clubs should consider making boosters available for players and their families.

“Any individual who is not currently subject to the requirement for boosters will be required to obtain the booster within 14 days of becoming eligible,” the memo reads.

-ABC News’ Katie Conway

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(OXFORD, Mich.) — Oxford Community Schools announced it is closing its middle school Tuesday due to a social media threat.

The news comes days after the school district in Oxford, Michigan, decided to reopen its high school following last month’s deadly shooting.

“Today, December 13, we received an image from social media that included a specific threat directed at our middle school,” Oxford Community Schools said in a statement posted on its website Monday evening. “We immediately notified law enforcement, who are investigating.”

The school district said that out of an abundance of caution, it is canceling classes in all of the buildings on Tuesday.

“We plan to do a full security check of all our buildings while our security experts and law enforcement conduct their investigation,” the school district said. “Please talk to your students and remind them that all threats at Oxford Community Schools will be taken seriously, investigated by law enforcement, and will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”

Further details about the threat were not released.

The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office said it is working to determine the credibility of the threat to Oxford Middle School but confirmed that it was violent in nature.

“Dozens of threats have been made all across Oakland County in multiple school districts,” Oakland County Undersheriff Mike McCabe told ABC News in an email Tuesday. “It is out of control.”

Four students were killed and seven people were injured at Oxford High School on Nov. 30, after a gunman opened fire. Both the alleged gunman — a 15-year-old student — and his parents have since been arrested and charged.

As middle schoolers stay home on Tuesday, the suspect’s parents are scheduled to appear in court on charges of involuntary manslaughter.

Oxford Community Schools closed its schools after the fatal shooting. Once the school district reopened classroom doors, it did so with various rules in place, such as no backpacks allowed. It also placed law enforcement, private security, trained trauma specialists and additional staff in each building.

Oxford Community Schools superintendent Tim Throne said in a statement last Thursday that every school would also have trained therapy dogs through the rest of the school year.

At the time, Thorne also said that the district was monitoring “all outgoing content from students and staff” and would immediately raise “any concerning images, links to websites and shared items from Google Drive for our technology safety and security team.”

Threats can be reported anonymously to the State of Michigan’s Okay2Say tip line at 8-555-OK2SAY or OKAY2SAY@mi.gov.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — At least 88 people across five U.S. states have been confirmed dead after a swarm of tornadoes tore through communities in the South and the Midwest over the weekend.

There were at least 44 tornadoes reported across nine states between Friday night and early Saturday morning — unusual for December in the United States. Kentucky was the worst-hit state, with at least 74 confirmed fatalities, according to Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who cautioned that figure “is fluid” and “will change.”

“Undoubtedly, there will be more,” Beshear told reporters during a press conference Monday.

The governor, who has two relatives among the dead, fought back tears as he revealed the age range of the known victims. He said 18 bodies have yet to be identified.

“Of the ones that we know, the age range is 5 months to 86 years old and six are younger than 18,” he said.

On average, there are 69 tornado-related fatalities in the U.S. each year, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The deadliest tornado on record to hit Kentucky occurred on March 27, 1890. There were 76 deaths.

Kentucky alone was hit by at least five tornadoes between Friday and Saturday, including one that stayed on the ground for some 200 miles, “devastating anything in its path,” Beshear said.

At least 18 counties in Kentucky reported lives lost, and 18 counties reported damages. As of Monday morning, some 30,000 homes in the southeastern state were still without power, according to Beshear.

“Thousands of homes are damaged, if not entirely destroyed,” he told reporters. “We’re not going to let any of our folks go homeless.”

Beshear acknowledged that it will take time to rebuild from what he described as the “worst tornado event” in Kentucky’s history and doubted whether it would have been possible to be better prepared.

“I don’t think anyone could have predicted something as devastating as this,” he said. “I don’t fault warning systems, I don’t fault training.”

He then posed the question: “How do you tell people that there’s going to be one of the most powerful tornadoes in history and it’s going to come directly through your building?”

At least 300 members of the Kentucky National Guard have been deployed across the state to help local authorities remove debris and search for survivors as well as victims, according to Beshear.

“There is significant debris removal going on right now, but there is just a mountain of waste. It is going to take a significant amount of time,” he said. “We’ve got significant livestock dead in all of the areas — there’s ongoing cleanup with that, too.”

In an interview with ABC News’ David Muir on Sunday, the Kentucky governor said rescuers have pulled some survivors from the rubble.

“We are still hoping for miracles,” Beshear added. “We are finding people and every single moment is incredible.”

Speaking to reporters Monday afternoon, Beshear said more than 20 deaths were in Kentucky’s Graves County, where Mayfield is the county seat. Another 17 deaths were reported in Hopkins County, 11 in Muhlenberg County, 15 in Warren County, four in Caldwell County, one in Marshall County, one in Taylor County, one in Fulton County, one in Lyon County and one in Franklin County, according to the governor.

Beshear said the latest confirmed death was a government contractor whose vehicle was pushed off a road and crashed during the storm. He said there are about 109 people in Kentucky who remain unaccounted for, including 81 in Hopkins County and 22 in Warren County.

Among others killed were eight night-shift workers at a candle factory in Mayfield, a city of about 10,000 people in western Kentucky. There were 110 employees inside the Mayfield Consumer Products facility when a tornado closed in late Friday night, Mayfield Consumer Products CEO Troy Propes told ABC News.

“We feared much, much worse and, again, I pray that it’s accurate,” Beshear told reporters Monday morning, noting that “15-plus feet of wreckage,” along with a lack of cellular service, made it difficult to determine how many individuals made it out of the destroyed facility alive.

On Monday evening, Louisville Emergency Management director E.J. Meiman told reporters that the factory’s owners said they “verified that they have accounted for every occupant” who was present during the storm.

“We’ve also been meeting with all of our rescue experts that have been on the pile, and we have a high level of confidence there is nobody in this building,” Meiman said, adding that the figure of eight fatalities at the facility hasn’t changed.

One of the survivors, Kyanna Parsons, recalled hunkering down at the candle factory with her co-workers when the tornado hit. She said she felt a gust of wind and her ears popped. The lights flickered before going out completely and the roof of the building suddenly collapsed, she said.

“Everybody just starts screaming,” Parsons told ABC News during an interview Sunday.

“I definitely had the fear that I wasn’t gonna make it,” she added. “It’s a miracle any of us got out of there.”

Mayfield Mayor Kathy Stewart O’Nan said she was at the scene of the destroyed factory the following morning. She recalled seeing first responders from Louisville, Kentucky’s largest city, more than 200 miles away, “who had already gotten there, who had got in their trucks as quick as they could and come to help us.”

“The offers from all over the United States are overwhelming,” O’Nan told ABC News’ Robin Roberts during an interview Monday. “We are so blessed with the state and federal support.”

The mayor said her city lost its sewage treatment plant and a water tower, in addition to many homes and businesses. Mayfield still has no power, natural gas nor flowing water, according to O’Nan.

“The immediate needs of our city people and our responders are being met with just wonderful donations,” she said. “But our infrastructure is damaged so severely that getting that up and running is our absolute greatest priority at this time.”

O’Nan, who lives about four blocks from the center of the city’s downtown area, said she knew from watching the weather forecast on the news last week that this storm would be “different.”

“This was not a storm that us Kentuckians like to go out on the porch and watch roll by,” she said.

When the tornado touched down on Friday night, O’Nan said she took shelter in the basement of her home and waited there until she heard it pass overhead.

“That is a horrifying sound that I hope I never hear again,” she said.

A few minutes later, O’Nan said, she got a call from the city’s fire chief saying he couldn’t get the firetrucks or ambulances out of the bay at the fire station because the doors wouldn’t open. He ultimately had to attach a chain to his truck to pry the doors wide so firefighters and emergency workers could be dispatched, according to O’Nan.

“To watch them work tirelessly as they have during the last two days so far has just been heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time,” the mayor said.

“When I’m ever asked what’s the greatest asset of our community, it is always our people,” she added. “We’ve had small tragedies before and every time immediately the people bond together. I’ve seen that so much now, but we’re joined by so many people from all across the commonwealth, all across the United States.”

In the small town of Gilbertsville in Kentucky’s Marshall County, about 35 miles northeast of Mayfield, entire neighborhoods were leveled. Wilbert Neil, an 88-year-old resident, returned to what was left of his two-story home with his 63-year-old son Jerry on Sunday and tried to salvage whatever valuables they could find. All of their belongings — from clothing to vehicles — were buried beneath debris. But they managed to find a safe with cash, their wallets, their firearms and a few spare clothes.

“Everything is destroyed,” Wilbert Neil told ABC News while surveying the destruction. “We almost didn’t make it.”

The house was home for 21 years, Wilbert Neil said. He and his wife had bought it a year after they retired and it became the place where their children and grandchildren gathered during the holidays.

“This was the dream house for my wife,” he said, tearfully. “She loved it. She’ll never see it again.”

Meanwhile, six people were killed in Illinois, where a tornado hit an Amazon facility. Four others were killed in Tennessee. There were two deaths reported in Arkansas and another two in Missouri, according to local officials.

During a press conference Monday, Amazon representatives told reporters that all six of the employees killed at the company’s warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois, had congregated in a part of the massive facility that was not meant to provide shelter from severe storms.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said authorities are investigating “what exactly occurred” that evening at the Amazon warehouse and called the tornado that slammed into the building part of “an unexpected major, severe storm.”

Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said the Edwardsville facility had a designated shelter-in-place room, with no windows, on the north side of the building. Nearly all of the 46 employees working when the twister hit Friday night had gathered in the room after receiving tornado warnings, according to Nantel.

Nantel told reporters that seven of the employees, including the six who died, were working at the south end of the building that did not have a shelter-in-place room and huddled there as the tornado closed in. She said it was only a “matter of minutes” between the warning and the tornado strike.

She said the surviving worker huddled with that group was injured and is still receiving medical care.

John Felton, senior vice president of global delivery services at Amazon, said there was a “tremendous effort to keep everybody safe” on Friday, including the use of megaphones at the facility.

U.S. President Joe Biden declared a state of emergency in Kentucky on Saturday, ordering federal assistance to support the local response efforts. On Sunday night, Biden updated the declaration, making federal funding available to affected individuals in the Kentucky counties of Caldwell, Fulton, Graves, Hopkins, Marshall, Muhlenberg, Taylor and Warren. He also made it possible for residents to get assistance, such as grants for temporary housing or business repairs.

On Monday night, Biden approved emergency declarations for both Illinois and Tennessee.

The president will travel to Kentucky on Wednesday for a briefing from officials and to tour the damage in the cities of Mayfield and Dawson Springs, according to the White House. Biden received a briefing on Kentucky’s storm damage in the Oval Office on Monday, after asking for a “detailed briefing” from his administration officials who were on the ground in Mayfield on Sunday.

“It’s a town that has been wiped out, but it’s not the only town, it’s not the only town. That [tornado] path you see moves all the way up to well over 100 miles, and there’s more than one route it goes,” Biden told reporters Monday. “We’re also seeing destruction met with a lot of compassion, I’m told.”

The Kentucky governor said Biden called him three times on Saturday and that the president “has moved faster than we’ve ever seen on getting us the aid we need.”

“We will welcome him here and we will thank him for his help and, sadly, we will show him the worst tornado damage imaginable — certainly the worst in our state history,” Beshear told reporters Monday.

Beshear has ordered flags to be flown at half-staff across Kentucky for a week in honor of those who were killed or impacted by the tornadoes. He asked other states to join in.

According to Beshear, more than 44,300 people from across the nation have donated over $6 million to Kentucky’s relief fund: TeamWKYReliefFund.ky.gov. Meanwhile, Kentucky’s first lady, Britainy Beshear, announced she is launching a Christmas toy drive on Tuesday to provide gifts to children who have been displaced by the devastation and “make this Christmas special for as many babies, kids and teens as possible who need our love and support more than ever.”

Michael Dossett, director of Kentucky’s Division of Emergency Management, praised the swift federal response during Monday’s press conference, but cautioned that the restoration efforts on the ground “will go on for years to come.”

“I can tell you from just being a veteran of now 17 disasters, it takes time to get wheels rolling,” Dossett said. “This is a massive event — the largest and most devastating in Kentucky’s history.”

ABC News’ Patrick Doherty, Matt Foster, Ivan Pereira, Jakeira Gilbert, Max Golembo, Will Gretsky, Will McDuffie and Briana Stewart contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.3 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 798,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

About 60.9% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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

Dec 14, 6:45 am
Pfizer says COVID-19 pills could be FDA authorized by end of year

Pfizer’s forthcoming COVID-19 treatment could be authorized for emergency use in the United States by the end of this year or early next year, pending the Food and Drug Administration’s regulatory timeline, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told ABC News.

The pharmaceutical giant announced Tuesday that it has submitted promising new data to the FDA, including lab experiments showing its oral antiviral medicine, Paxlovid, will likely work against the omicron variant. And in updated clinical trial data, Pfizer found the treatment reduces the risk of being hospitalized or dying by 89% when taken within three days of being diagnosed with COVID-19, and 88% when taken within five days of being diagnosed among high-risk, unvaccinated patients.

“It is a game changer,” Bourla told ABC News. “But at the same time, I want to emphasize that no one should use the existence of the pill as an excuse to avoid vaccination.”

Bourla said the medicine could save thousands of lives.

“We did some calculations how many deaths or hospitalizations can be avoided based on the current U.S. mortality rates and the current U.S. hospitalization rates,” he said. “On the back-of-the-envelope calculation, we estimate that 100,000 people if they take the pill, we will avoid 6,000 hospitalizations and 1,200 deaths approximately.”

-ABC News’ Sony Salzman

Dec 14, 5:57 am
France mulls tightening entries from UK due to omicron

France is considering tightening restrictions for travelers arriving from the United Kingdom, where the omicron variant appears to be spreading swiftly.

“Regarding Britain, the current rule is to show a negative test less than 48 hours old in order to enter France,” French government spokesman Gabriel Attal told France Info radio on Tuesday. “But we are always looking at means to tighten the framework, we are currently working on that and we should, I think, come to a conclusion in the coming days.”

Dec 14, 5:44 am
Mainland China confirms 1st case of omicron variant

China has confirmed its first case of the omicron variant on the mainland, state-run media reported Monday.

The variant was detected in a traveler from overseas who arrived in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin on Dec. 9. The individual tested positive for COVID-19 last week and subsequent genome sequencing confirmed it was the omicron variant.

The patient, who showed no symptoms, is being treated in isolation at a hospital, according to state-run media.

Dec 14, 5:31 am
UK reports 1st death from omicron variant

At least one person has died in the United Kingdom after being infected with the omicron variant, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Monday.

It’s the first publicly confirmed death globally from the new variant of the novel coronavirus, which was initially identified in southern Africa last month and has since spread rapidly around the world. Deaths from omicron may have already occurred in other countries but no others have been publicly confirmed yet.

Speaking to reporters during a visit to a vaccination clinic in London, Johnson said the death was a patient who had been diagnosed at a hospital but gave no further details.

“Sadly, at least one patient has now been confirmed to have died with omicron,” the prime minister said. “So I think the idea that this is somehow a milder version of the virus, I think that’s something we need to set on one side and just recognize the sheer pace at which it accelerates through the population. So the best thing we can do is all get our boosters.”

Dec 13, 9:59 pm
NFL to require vaccinated Tier 1 and 2 employees receive boosters by Dec. 27

The NFL will require that all its vaccinated Tier 1 and 2 employees receive their COVID-19 booster shots by Dec. 27, according to a memo they sent all 32 teams on Monday.

This group of employees includes coaches and other employees who work closely with players and help in essential league operations.

“On November 29, the CDC issued a study showing that the effectiveness of the approved COVID-19 vaccines may decrease over time and has recommended that all eligible vaccinated individuals over the age of 18 should receive a booster shot,” the memo reads. “Given the increased prevalence of the virus in our communities, our experts have recommended that we implement the CDC’s recommendation.”

The memo came as 36 players were added to the league’s COVID-19 reserve list. Players are currently not required to receive boosters, but in Monday’s memo, the NFL said clubs should consider making boosters available for players and their families.

“Any individual who is not currently subject to the requirement for boosters will be required to obtain the booster within 14 days of becoming eligible,” the memo reads.

-ABC News’ Katie Conway

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Requiring proof of a COVID-19 vaccination to eat at a restaurant, go to a movie or take part in other indoor group activities may have a ripple effect, according to researchers.

A study published Monday in Lancet Public Health found that some countries that implemented “COVID-19 certifications” such as vaccine passports providing proof of complete vaccination, a negative COVID-19 test or a COVID-19 recovery certificate saw an increase in the number of people getting their shots.

The study, which looked at vaccination rates in France, Israel, Italy, Switzerland, Denmark and Germany where such certifications were made mandatory, found there were major jumps in the number of vaccine doses given once the rules were put in place.

“Overall, we observed a significant uptick in anticipation of restrictions coming into place around 20 days before introduction, which lasted up to 40 days after,” Melinda Mills, director of the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science at the University of Oxford and the study’s lead author, said in a statement.

Researchers said the data showed a significant increase in the number of vaccine doses per million people: 127,000 in France, over 243,000 in Israel, over 64,000 in Switzerland and over 66,000 in Italy.

There was a significant increase in vaccinations among people under 30, the study found. Researchers believe COVID-19 certifications used at leisure and hospitality spots, such as nightclubs, likely precipitated the jump in younger people.

“We know that certain groups have lower vaccine uptake than others and it may be that COVID-19 certification is a useful way to encourage vaccine complacent groups, like young people and men, to get vaccinated,” Dr. Tobias Rüttenauer, one of the study’s co-authors, said in a statement.

Researchers noted the study had some limitations. For instance, there was no data available to examine vaccine uptake by sociodemographic, gender and ethnic groups. Researchers also acknowledged concerns that COVID-19 certifications raises the “risk of exacerbating inequalities among certain ethnic or socioeconomic groups that have lower uptake and trust in authorities.”

The study recommends that other measures should be used to complement the COVID-19 certification, such as vaccine drives targeted at hesitant groups.

“COVID-19 certification is only part of a constellation of multiple policy levers that could be used to counter vaccine complacency and hesitancy and increase uptake,” the researchers wrote.

Anyone who needs help scheduling a free vaccine appointment can log onto vaccines.gov.

Alexis E. Carrington, M.D., an ABC News Medical Unit associate producer and a rising dermatology resident at George Washington University, contributed to this report.

 

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(NEW YORK) — Victims of former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar reached a $380 million settlement with USA Gymnastics, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and their insurers on Monday, a lawyer representing some of the victims said.

This decision brings the total compensation the victims have received to $880 billion following the May 2018 settlement reached with Michigan State University, where Nassar was a former employee.

Lead attorney John Manly in a statement credited the resolution to the courage and tenacity of the survivors, who he said “relived their abuse publicly, in countless media interviews” to prevent others from facing similar abuse.

The settlement also included some nonmonetary provisions, including a restorative justice program that USAG has committed to establishing in collaboration with the victims, giving them influence over the organization’s sexual assault procedures, according to ESPN.

Attorney Rachel Denhollander, the first woman to accuse Nassar, lauded the nonmonetary provisions in a tweet.

“This represents so much hard work from members of the committee and I am eager to see these changes through,” she wrote.

USAG also committed to having at least one survivor in their Board of Directors, Safe Sport Committee and Athlete Health and Wellness Council, among other commitments, a statement from the organization said.

“The Plan of Reorganization that we jointly filed reflects our own accountability to the past and our commitment to the future,” USAG President and CEO Li Li Leung said.

In a statement provided to ABC News, U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee CEO Sarah Hirshland said she was grateful to have reached a resolution and praised the women who raised their voices against Nassar.

“We have the deepest respect for the tremendous strength and bravery these women have shown. We recognize our role in failing to protect these athletes, and we are sorry for the profound hurt they have endured,” Hirshland said.

Manly said the victims’ fight for justice has not ended with this settlement, as a recent investigation also shed light on the role the FBI played in protecting Nassar.

In September 2021, gymnasts Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney, Maggie Nichols and Aly Raisman testified before the Senate over the alleged failures of the FBI in handling the case against Nassar.

“There is one more chapter yet to be written, the criminal prosecution of the FBI officials who failed to investigate and stop Nassar together with the USAG and USOPC officials who conspired with them to impede the investigation,” Manly said.

“We will continue to pursue justice on behalf of the hundreds of little girls and young women who were molested as a direct result of their obstruction of justice,” he added.

 

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(NEW YORK) — Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is expected to plead guilty on federal civil rights charges in the death of George Floyd on Wednesday, Dec. 15, according to a court filing added to the case docket Monday. He had previously pleaded not guilty.

Former officers J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao were also charged, and the three of them have pleaded not guilty.

A grand jury indicted the four of them for depriving Floyd of his constitutional right to be free from the use of unreasonable force when they saw him lying on the ground “in clear need” of medical care but “willfully failed to aid Floyd, thereby acting with deliberate indifference to a substantial risk of harm.”

They were attempting to place him under arrest on suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill to buy cigarettes at a convenience store.

During the encounter, Chauvin held his knee on the back of Floyd’s neck for more than 9 minutes. Floyd, who was handcuffed and in a prone position on the pavement, repeatedly said he couldn’t breathe, before falling unconscious and losing a pulse, according to evidence presented at Chauvin’s state trial. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.

Video footage — from police body cameras, security cameras and civilian witnesses — played at the trial, showed Kueng and Lane helping Chauvin hold Floyd down, and Thao keeping away witnesses who were expressing concerns for Floyd.

In April, Chauvin, 45, was found guilty on three counts in Floyd’s death — second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter — for pressing his knee against Floyd’s neck for more than 9 minutes.

 

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(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.3 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 798,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

About 60.8% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Latest headlines:
-US reaches 50 million confirmed cases
-US daily cases up 85% since October
-Omicron appears to spread faster and vaccine less effective against it, WHO says

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

Dec 13, 4:09 pm
164,000 new pediatric cases reported last week

Last week, another 164,000 children in the U.S. tested positive for COVID-19, up by 24% from the week prior, according to a report released Monday from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.

COVID-19 cases among children are “extremely high,” the organizations wrote.

Last week the Northeast saw its highest number of pediatric cases since the onset of the pandemic, with nearly 40,000 new cases.

So far, 21 million children ages 5 to 17 — about 39.6% — have received at least one vaccine dose.

Severe illness due to COVID-19 remains “uncommon” among children, the two organizations wrote in the report. But AAP and CHA continue to warn that there is an urgent need to collect more data on the long-term consequences of the pandemic on kids, including the physical, emotional and mental health impacts.

ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos

Dec 13, 3:28 pm
US reaches 50 million confirmed cases

A total of 50 million COVID-19 cases have now been confirmed in the U.S., according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The U.S. has reported more cases than any other nation in the world. The U.S. currently represents nearly one-fifth of the globe’s total 270.5 million cases.

ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos

Dec 13, 2:59 pm
US daily cases up 85% since October

In the weeks following Thanksgiving, the COVID-19 resurgence in the U.S. has escalated rapidly.

The U.S. is averaging more than 118,000 new cases each day — up by about 41.8% in the last two weeks and up nearly 85% since late October, according to federal data.

Six states with some of the nation’s highest vaccination rates are also among the states with the highest new case rates: New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island and New York. Experts say cases could be rising in the Northeast partially due to people heading inside in the cold weather.

Daily COVID-19-related hospital admissions increased by 14.4% in the last week and jumped by 48% in the last month, according to federal data.

Pediatric admissions are up by 23.8% in the last week.

ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos

Dec 13, 1:07 pm
Omicron expected to be dominant variant in London within 48 hours

Omicron is expected to be the dominant variant in London in the next 48 hours, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Sajid Javid, warned in a statement to Parliament Monday.

Omicron represents 20% of England’s cases and 44% of London’s cases, Javid said.

“No variant of COVID-19 has spread this fast,” Javid said.

Ten people with omicron are in U.K. hospitals.

“Hospitalizations and deaths lag infections by around two weeks,” Javid said, “So we can expect those numbers to dramatically increase in the days and weeks that lie ahead.”

“In preparation, the UK’s four Chief Medical Officers raised the COVID Alert level to 4, its second-highest level, this was done over the weekend. And NHS England has just announced it will return to its highest level of emergency preparedness: Level 4 National Incident,” Javid said. “This means the NHS response to Omicron will be a coordinated as a national effort, rather than led by individual trusts.”

Javid also urged people to get booster doses, stating that 40% of adults in the U.K. have gotten boosters so far.

ABC News’ Zoe Magee

 

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(NEW YORK) — The tornadoes that barreled through the South and the Midwest Friday night have claimed at least 88 lives, mostly in Kentucky.

So many survivors have lost loved ones, homes, belongings, and sense of security.

Here are the stories of some Kentuckians who survived the storm and are picking up the pieces.

In hard-hit Mayfield, Kentucky, Steve Sasseen huddled in the basement with two neighbors, putting laundry baskets and blankets over their heads when the twister closed in.

Sasseen said the tornado “sounded like someone picked the house up and dropped it — extremely loud.”

It was over within a few minutes, and Sasseen said all he could see was “haze and dust.”

Once he went outside, the neighborhood “looked like a war zone,” Sasseen said.

“I’ve lived here all my life, and this is the worst thing I’ve ever had to go through,” he said. “I keep thinking it’s a nightmare and I’ll wake up.”

Dakota, who did not share his last name, was working at the Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory when the tornado hit.

“The top of the building got ripped off. And then we told everyone, ‘Get down,'” Dakota told ABC News. “I started pushing people under the water fountain. We were trapped. I was trapped under the water fountain for like two hours.”

He said he was then able to wedge a fire hydrant under the fountain and he and a colleague dug their way out.

“We started pulling the rest of our team out and then we were able to get first responders to the areas that were needed,” Dakota said. “I found people [with] broken legs, pulling them out. Some were non-responsive. It was rough.”

Meanwhile, Dakota’s fiancée, Brandi, was in agony waiting for news. Dakota had texted her to say “we’re hit” by the twister, but then she said, “his phone just dropped and I couldn’t get ahold of him.”

“A while later, he called me and he said that he’s trapped, that he’s under all the debris,” Dakota said. “He didn’t know if anyone was gonna be able to find him. I could hear people screaming.”

“He called me and he said, ‘I love you. Tell mom I love her. I’m sorry, I tried.’ And in that moment I collapsed because I thought he was gonna die,” she said. “I thought my worst nightmare was coming true, and I didn’t hear from him for hours, not knowing he was OK.”

“The moment that he called me when he got out of the rubble, you know, it was just instant relief,” she said. “He said that he wasn’t gonna go get checked out, he had to go back for his people. He had his people back there. He had to go save them.”

Several factory workers died from the tornado.

Mayfield resident Rick Foley said parts of his home collapsed on top of him.

“I heard it coming,” he told ABC News. “My ears popped and everything just hit all at once. And I ducked down and just everything piled on top of me — all the debris.”

Covered in insulation and dirt and overwhelmed with shock, Foley spent the night in his bed after the tornado tore the walls apart.

“I’m 70 years old and I got to start over,” he said, holding back tears.

In Gilbertsville, Kentucky, miles of homes are completely leveled.

At what used to be the two-story home of 88-year-old Wilbert Neil and his son, 63-year-old Jerry Neil, all of their belongings, cars and clothes are buried in debris.

“Everything is destroyed,” Jerry Neil said. “We almost didn’t make it.”

Jerry Neil said if he and his father didn’t move to the basement when they did, they wouldn’t have survived.

When they went to survey the damage on Sunday, they managed to find a safe with cash, their wallets, a few spare clothes and their guns.

Wilbert Neil was visibly emotional when volunteers found old photographs and the belongings of his 85-year-old wife. She has Alzheimer’s and has no idea the house is destroyed, according to the family. Wilbert Neil said he couldn’t bring himself to tell her.

The Neils bought the house in 2000, one year after they retired. It was the place where their grandchildren gathered during the holidays.

“This was the dream house for my wife,” he said tearfully. “We got it. She loved it. She’ll never see it again.”

ABC News’ Marcus Moore, Elwyn Lopez, Briana Stewart contributed to this report.

 

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(NEW YORK) — A woman was killed and 13 people were injured when a drive-by shooting erupted at a candlelight vigil Sunday evening in a suburb of Houston, officials said.

An unidentified gunman opened fire on a crowd of about 50 people, including children, participating in a celebration of life for a recent homicide victim in Baytown, a community about 25 miles east of Houston, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said at a news conference near the scene of the shooting.

A Harris County sheriff’s sergeant told ABC station KTRK in Houston that a mother was holding a vigil for her son who was killed at his home a couple of weeks ago. Gonzalez said the shooting happened around 6:40 p.m.

“Right as they were releasing the balloons up in the air was when the vehicle came, and almost at that exact time is when they opened fire into the crowd,” Gonzalez said.

On Monday morning, Gonzalez identified the woman killed in the shooting as Disha Allen, who he said was in her mid-20s.

He said three of the people wounded were in critical condition.

Sidney Williams, a witness who attended the vigil, told KTRK-TV he heard 20 to 30 gunshots.

“People were screaming and running to their cars,” Williams said.

Witnesses said two of the victims who were shot were a pastor and his wife who were in attendance at the vigil, according to KTRK-TV.

Gonzalez said many of the shooting victims were taken in private cars to an area hospital, where a fight broke out and required sheriff’s deputies to intervene.

The sheriff said no arrests have been made. He said the assailant or assailants were in a small, dark-colored sedan.

He said a motive for the shooting remains under investigation.

“Bullets don’t have eyes,” Gonzalez said, “so it puts everyone at risk.”

ABC News’ Marilyn Heck contributed to this report.

 

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