(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 800,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 61% 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 15, 8:09 am
Journalist traveling with Blinken tests positive for COVID-19 in Malaysia
A journalist traveling alongside U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on his visit to Southeast Asia has tested positive for COVID-19 in Malaysia, according to U.S. Department of State spokesperson Ned Price.
Meanwhile, Blinken and his senior staff all tested negative for COVID-19 upon arrival in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday night. The member of the traveling press pool who tested positive had last tested negative in Indonesia’s capital, their previous stop, on Tuesday.
“The individual who tested positive will remain in isolation,” Price said in a statement Wednesday, “and we will continue to adhere to and go beyond CDC guidance, including with our rigorous testing protocol, for the remaining traveling party.”
Blinken has canceled a scheduled trip to Thailand “out of an abundance of caution” and will return home to the United States, according to Price.
“The Secretary expressed his deep regret to the Foreign Minister that he would not be able to visit Bangkok this week,” Price said. “He explained that, in order to mitigate the risk of the spread of COVID-19 and to prioritize the health and safety of the U.S. traveling party and those they would otherwise come into contact with, the Secretary would be returning to Washington, D.C. out of an abundance of caution.”
“The Secretary extended an invitation for the Foreign Minister to visit Washington, D.C. at the earliest opportunity and noted that he looked forward to traveling to Thailand as soon as possible,” Price added. “They affirmed that they would use the upcoming engagements to further deepen the U.S.-Thai alliance.”
The U.S. Embassy in Malaysia confirmed that the infected individual “was not involved and has not participated in any of Secretary Blinken’s program in Kuala Lumpur.”
“The sole member of the traveling party who tested positive is observing all requirements of the Ministry of Health,” the embassy said in a statement Wednesday. “We confirm all other members of the party tested negative for COVID-19 upon arrival in Malaysia.”
Blinken was in Indonesia on Tuesday, and the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta confirmed that no members of the traveling party tested positive for COVID-19.
All members of the U.S. delegation are required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and undergo regular testing on trips.
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan
Dec 15, 6:23 am
Over 67,000 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in US as winter surge intensifies
With winter closing in and COVID-19 cases on the rise, hospitals across the United States are once again facing the pressures of caring for thousands of patients.
More than 67,000 people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 nationwide, according to federal data.
Rebecca Long, lead nurse in a COVID-19 intensive care unit at Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, told ABC News that she and her team “literally do not have any ICU beds” available.
“I don’t want anyone else’s family member or loved one to have to be in the position where we say, like, we can’t help you because we don’t have the resources,” Long said. “As health care providers, all we want to do is help people and we can’t because we physically can’t.”
Dr. Kyle McCarty, medical director of emergency services at both HSHS St. Mary’s and HSHS St. Vincent hospitals in Green Bay, Wisconsin, told ABC News that health care workers are feeling burned out after “being asked to do more with less.”
“We’re exhausted by the knowledge that we are the duct tape that is preventing a complete collapse of the health care system,” McCarty said. “There’s a national shortage of hospital staff, which is making it difficult to take care of patients the way that we want it. There aren’t enough inpatient beds for the patients that need to be admitted to the hospital.”
“This is a call for reinforcements, not a warning to stay away, because we don’t want this to be the new normal,” he added. “If we can recruit more health care teammates, it doesn’t have to be.”
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Dec 14, 7:19 pm
US death toll from COVID-19 crosses 800,000
The number of people who have died from COVID-19 in the United States surpassed 800,000 on Tuesday, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
The figure is greater than the approximately 700,000 Americans who have died from AIDS-related illnesses over the last four decades, and it’s higher than the total number of U.S. troops who have fallen in battle since 1900.
Since last December, when the first COVID-19 vaccines were being administered, an additional 500,000 people in the U.S. have died from the virus.
Of those, some 230,000 have died since April 2021, when U.S. President Joe Biden announced COVID-19 vaccines were widely available to every American over the age of 18.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Dec 14, 6:59 pm
US sees sevenfold jump in omicron cases over the last week
The U.S. saw a sevenfold increase in the prevalence of the omicron COVID-19 variant over the last week, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Just over two weeks after it was first discovered in the country, the omicron variant is now estimated to account for nearly 3% of all new cases in the U.S., the latest data from the CDC shows.
Last week, omicron accounted for an estimated 0.4% of all new cases, according to the data.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
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.”
(NEW YORK) — As Americans gather to toast the end of another particularly difficult year, many loved ones will be notably missing from holiday celebrations, a glaring reminder of the tragic realities of the coronavirus pandemic.
On Tuesday, the United States reached yet another staggering milestone, with 800,000 Americans now confirmed lost to the coronavirus, according to newly updated data from Johns Hopkins University.
“This will be a defining tragedy of our generation,” David Dowdy, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told ABC News. “We’ve gotten to the point where our eyes glaze over on these numbers. But by now, almost every one of us knows someone who has died of COVID-19.”
The sobering marker comes less than two years into the pandemic, and despite the introduction of the first coronavirus vaccines, nearly one year ago.
Half a million lives lost since last December
When the first COVID-19 vaccines were administered last December, many Americans hoped the shots would herald a return to normalcy. However, since last December, an additional 500,000 Americans have died of the virus. Of those, just shy of half — 230,000 — lost their lives since April 2021, when President Joe Biden announced the vaccine was now widely available to every American over the age of 18.
“The vast majority of these deaths could have been avoided,” said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor. “Despite the availability of vaccines, we have seen close to half a million deaths since first shots went into arms last December.”
Americans in every state, city and town have felt the personal impact and ripple effect of the virus.
An analysis tracking the extensive reach of COVID-19 loss of kin with a bereavement multiplier, published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, estimated that 7.2 million family members may be grieving the loss of a loved one due to the virus.
The staggering number of deaths due to COVID-19 is now higher than the 700,000 Americans who have died from AIDS-related illnesses over the last four decades. It is also higher than the total number of American troops who have died in battle since 1900, and about the same as the population of North Dakota.
“Every other minute in this country, for almost two years now, that story has repeated itself. By the time you finish reading this [story], someone else will have died of this disease,” Dowdy said.
Although the death rate is significantly lower than it was at the nation’s peak last January, on average, more than 1,000 Americans are still being reported lost to the virus each day.
“[The average] is more than twice the rate of most countries in places like Europe, even though they have more cases than we do. This is an ongoing failure of our society,” said Dowdy.
Some experts believe that the current COVID-19 death count could potentially be greatly undercounted, due to inconsistent reporting by states and localities, and the exclusion of excess deaths, a measure of how many lives have been lost beyond what would be expected if the pandemic had not occurred.
‘This pandemic is clearly not over’
In the early days of the pandemic, even the highest death toll projections seemed unimaginable.
Studies have found that the virus was present in the U.S., potentially as early as December 2019, although widespread transmission likely did not occur until late February 2020, according to experts.
The COVID-19 death toll is now eight times what former President Donald Trump once stated, in the early days of the pandemic.
“The minimum number was 100,000 lives, and I think we’ll be substantially under that number… So we’ll see what it ends up being, but it looks like we’re headed to a number substantially below 100,000,” Trump said in April 2020.
Forecasts predict that as the U.S. faces yet another winter viral resurgence, and it is possible that thousands more lives could be lost before the end of 2021.
Experts say that a confluence of factors, such as vaccine hesitancy, cold weather, relaxed restrictions, the highly transmissible delta variant and the impact of waning vaccine immunity over time have all contributed to the higher death toll.
“This pandemic is clearly not over,” UMass Memorial Health Care President and CEO Dr. Eric Dickson told ABC News. “This is really the toughest period of this whole pandemic right now for some of us.”
Although 60% of Americans are currently fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 95 million Americans remain completely unvaccinated, and thus at risk for infection, severe illness and death.
Now, with new concerns over the omicron variant, health experts are urging Americans to get boosted as soon as possible. About 50 million people – 25% of fully vaccinated Americans — have received an additional vaccine dose, according to the CDC.
Unvaccinated individuals had a 5.8 times greater risk of testing positive for COVID-19 and a 14 times greater risk of dying from it, as compared to vaccinated individuals, according to federal data compiled in September 2021.
Although masking is required in all forms of public transportation across the country, COVID-19 restrictions have become sparse, with few jurisdictions now requiring face coverings or social distancing.
“Vaccine resistance coupled with a rapid return to normal life has been at the expense of a tragic loss of life,” Brownstein said.
The rest of the upcoming winter holidays also continue to be a major source of concern for experts, after many communities saw an increase in cases and hospitalizations following Thanksgiving.
“While so many have done their part, we still have tens of millions of eligible people who have yet to recognize the tremendous loss of life that can be averted with the benefit that comes from getting vaccinated. This divide means that our devastating march to a million lives lost becomes even more certain,” Brownstein said.
(LAS VEGAS) — O. J. Simpson was granted an early discharge from his parole by Nevada state officials.
Simpson, 74, has been on parole since October 2017 following a nine-year prison stint on various charges, including armed robbery and kidnapping. He was scheduled to be discharged from his parole on Feb. 9, 2022, but the Nevada State Police’s Division of Parole and Probation sent an early discharge request to the Nevada Board of Parole Commissioners.
Such a request is part of state law.
On Nov. 30, the Nevada Board of Parole Commissioners conducted an early discharge hearing, and on Dec. 6 the board approved the request, according to the Nevada State Police.
“The board awarded credits in an amount equal to the time remaining on the sentence to reduce the sentence to time served,” the Nevada State Police said in a news release.
The former Buffalo Bills player and NFL commentator was convicted in 2008 for a confrontation that took place in a Las Vegas hotel room the prior year.
Bruce Fromong, a sports memorabilia dealer, claimed Simpson and a group of men broke into his room and stole sports memorabilia at gunpoint. Simpson contended the items were stolen from him and he was taking the goods back.
Simpson was sentenced to 33 years in prison but was eligible for parole after nine years. In 2017, the board granted Simpson parole.
(NEW YORK) — Muhammad Aziz, one of two men exonerated last month in the killing of Malcom X, filed a civil claim Tuesday against New York state, seeking $20 million in damages.
Aziz cited “more than 55 years living with the hardship and indignity attendant to being unjustly branded as a convicted murderer of one of the most important civil rights leaders in history” in a statement released by his attorneys at The David B. Shanies Law Office.
He also filed a notice of claim against New York City seeking legal redress for civil rights violations and other “government misconduct” that caused his wrongful conviction, according to the release.
“While I do not dwell on what my life might have been like had this travesty of justice never occurred, the deep and lasting trauma it caused cannot be overstated,” Aziz said in a statement. “Those responsible for depriving me of my liberty and for depriving my family of a husband, a father, and a grandfather should be held accountable.”
Aziz and Khalil Islam were convicted of being accomplices in the assassination of Malcom X in 1965, and Aziz spent more than 20 years in prison before he was paroled in 1985. Islam died in 2009.
Both men claimed that they were innocent, and confessed assassin Thomas Hagan, who served 45 years in prison, also maintained that neither man had participated in the killing.
Last month, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance moved to vacate the convictions of the two men due to “newly discovered evidence and the failure to disclose exculpatory evidence,” according to a joint motion Vance’s office filed with the defense.
Aziz, previously known as Norman Butler, appeared in front of a judge on Nov. 18 to officially clear his name.
“The events that led to my conviction and wrongful imprisonment should never have happened,” Aziz read in a statement on Nov. 18. “Those events were the result of a process that was corrupt to its core — one that is all too familiar — even in 2021.”
(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.
(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.
(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.
(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.
(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.
(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.
