(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.
(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.
(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.
(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.
(NEW YORK) — As rescue workers combed miles of splintered houses and commercial buildings for survivors and the dead in Kentucky and seven other states devastated by a string of tornadoes, stories of horror and resilience emerged on Sunday.
Sunday services were held in the parking lot of a Kentucky church that stood no more. A man who was buried alive with co-workers in a collapsed candle factory spoke of how he defied death. And an overwhelmed fire chief in one of the hardest-hit towns cited hazards facing his crews as they geared up for another day of searching through the rubble, hoping to find someone still alive.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said at least 50 people were killed in western Kentucky, and the death toll from what he described as “the most devastating tornado event in our state’s history” could exceed 100.
“To the people of America, there is no lens big enough to show you the extent of the damage here in Graves County, or in Kentucky. Nothing that was standing in the direct line of this tornado is still standing,” Beshear said during a Sunday afternoon news conference with U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The governor said no one has been recovered alive since 3:30 p.m. on Saturday.
He said the swarm of tornadoes left damage in 18 different counties and destroyed thousands of homes, as the death toll in four counties has surpassed double digits.
“I think the best that we can hope for would be the 50 (deaths). But I think it’s going to be significantly worse than that,” Beshear said. “Remember, we’re still finding bodies.”
He said at least 300 state National Guard members have been deployed across the state to help in the search for survivors.
Dr. Grant Fraser, an emergency department physician at TriStar Greenview Regional Medical Center in Bowling Green, told ABC News that the 22-bed hospital was quickly inundated with patients in the storm’s immediate aftermath.
“They had severe, severe injuries — crush injuries to their head, chest, spinal injuries, multiple penetrating injuries,” Fraser said of the patients. “So, there’s a combination of both tornado and flying objects penetrating people. Blunt force trauma, walls, ceilings that have fallen on people with severe crush injuries.”
In Mayfield, Kentucky, a worker in a candle factory that was flattened by a twister as he and more than 100 other workers were inside, told ABC News it was unfathomable he made it out alive.
Dakota, a worker at the Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory, recalled the moment the tornado hit the facility, ripping off the roof and sending debris raining down on him and his colleagues.
“We were toward the back, toward the bathrooms. And then the top of the building got ripped off,” Dakota, who asked that his last name not be published, told ABC News. “And then we told everyone, ‘Get down!’ I started pushing people under the water fountain. We were trapped.”
Dakota said he and a co-worker used a fire hydrant to prop up the water fountain, which they never thought they’d have to use as a life-saving shelter, until they had no other choice. He said that they stayed put under the fountain for two hours, listening to the swirling winds and screams of colleagues from other areas of the torn-apart factory.
“We were able to dig our way out,” Dakota said. “And then, after we got 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. I found people — broken legs, pulling them out. Some were non-responsive. It was rough.”
Beshers said that about 40 people were rescued at the candle factory. The company’s CEO, Troy Propes, told ABC News Sunday night that eight workers were confirmed dead, 94 have been located and eight remain unaccounted for. At the time of the storm, 110 workers were inside the factory.
He noted that many employees were not able to communicate after the storm because of communication and power issues, which is why it took officials some time to confirm their safety.
Lora Capps was on her tenth day on the job at the candle factory when the storm hit.
She told ABC News she and a janitor took shelter in a bathroom and they fell into a hole in the ground under the debris. The janitor did not make it, according to Capps.
“He kept saying, ‘I can’t breathe,’ and I said, ‘I’m trying.’ I want his family to know I tried my best. I said, ‘Just go be with God, and I’ll probably be following you,'” she told ABC News.
Capps said three men with flashlights found her and helped her to safety. Later, she was reunited with her son, who searched the debris.
But Capps said she is still left waiting to find out who of her co-workers survived.
“This is going to traumatize me for the rest of my life,” she said.
Mayfield Fire Chief Jeremy Creason told Good Morning America that emergency crews faced another day of challenges, calling the ongoing search operation at the candle factory “a very complicated rescue situation.”
“We’ve got a lot of heavy equipment, a lot of personnel. We’re dealing with tons of steel and metal that’s twisted and mangled … chemicals, and there’s just a lot going on on that scene,” Creason said on Sunday.
He described the rescue operation as “one of the most difficult situations that I’ll probably — that we’ll probably — ever face in our life.”
But even while surrounded by the devastation, Creason expressed hope.
“This is going to leave a mark on our community,” Creason said. “But you know, we’ll rebuild. We’ll bounce back. I have a very resilient group of first responders that I get the pleasure to serve with every day. And I couldn’t be more proud of them. And over the next few months and years, you’re going to see our community do the same thing. We’ll come back stronger than we were before.”
Chief Justice John Minton of the Kentucky Supreme Court confirmed that a district court judge, he identified as Brian Crick, was among those killed in the Western Kentucky tornado outbreak.
“This is a shocking loss to his family, his community and court system, and his family is in our prayers,” Minton said in a statement.
Minton added that a tornado caused heavy damage to the Graves County Courthouse in Mayfield.
Elsewhere in Mayfield, a parking lot prayer and communion service was held at the First Christian Church, one of three churches in downtown Mayfield that were destroyed or heavily damaged in the storm.
Milton West, the senior minister at First Christian, told congregants in attendance, “This is a necessary gathering.”
“I am convinced and I know how heartbroken you are,” West said during the service. “There aren’t words that I can say to take that feeling away.”
He informed the congregation of one artifact from the church that survived.
“Despite the fact that our sanctuary is demolished, the central place where we gather, a communion table survived. It is undamaged and unscathed,” West said. “We think that speaks volumes and what it says to us more than anything else is that we will always have a table to gather around and that because it survived, we know in our hearts that everyone is welcome around that table.”
There were at least 40 reported tornadoes across nine states between Friday night and early Saturday morning, cutting multiple paths of destruction across Kentucky, Arkansas, southern Illinois, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, Indiana and Ohio.
The National Weather Service on Sunday classified the tornado as an EF-3. The NWS estimated the tornado’s maximum width to be about three-quarters of a mile wide.
The twister that wrecked the Amazon facility in Edwardsville, Illinois, was also an EF-3 with peak winds up to 155 mph, according to the NWS. Two other EF-3 tornadoes were reported, one in Defiance, Missouri, and the other in Bowling Green, which packed winds of up to 150 mph.
A tornado that touched down in Hopkins County, Kentucky, derailed a 27-car freight train. Rescue workers said one train car picked up by the twister landed on a house 75 yards from the train tracks.
Mayorkas and Criswell toured the devastated areas of Kentucky on Sunday and pledged all the help state residents will need to recover and rebuild.
Beshears said that more than $2.5 million in donations have poured in from across the country to help devastated communities and pay for funeral costs.
President Joe Biden declared that a state of emergency in Kentucky on Saturday and ordered federal assistance to support the local response efforts.
On Sunday night, he updated his declaration, making federal funding available to affected individuals in the 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.
“We want to focus today and the next day on life-saving. We really want to make sure that we find anybody who’s still might be trapped in the rubble across all of these states,” Criswell said Sunday morning on ABC’s This Week.
Criswell added, “But then it’s going to be a long recovery and we really need to focus on how we’re going to help these communities with their immediate needs, their immediate sheltering needs and the long-term housing needs that are going to be really needed to help these communities and these families rebuild.”
ABC News’ Victor Oquendo, Reena Roy, Marcus Moore, Joshua Hoyos and Daniel Peck 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 797,000 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.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Dec 13, 5:29 am
Omicron appears to spread faster and weaken vaccines, WHO says
The omicron variant appears to have a “growth advantage” over the delta variant, the World Health Organization said in a technical brief released Sunday.
“It is spreading faster than the delta variant in South Africa where delta circulation was low, but also appears to spread more quickly than the delta variant in other countries where the incidence of delta is high, such as in the United Kingdom,” the WHO said in the brief, which was dated Friday. “Whether omicron’s observed rapid growth rate in countries with high levels of population immunity is related to immune evasion, intrinsic increased transmissibility, or a combination of both remains uncertain. However, given the current available data, it is likely that omicron will outpace the delta variant where community transmission occurs.”
Meanwhile, preliminary findings from South Africa suggest omicron may cause less severe illness than delta, and all cases of omicron reported in Europe to date have been mild or asymptomatic. But the WHO said “it remains unclear to what extent omicron may be inherently less virulent” and that “more data are needed to understand the severity profile.”
The WHO also noted that “there are limited available data, and no peer-reviewed evidence, on vaccine efficacy or effectiveness to date for omicron.” However, preliminary evidence, and the considerably altered antigenic profile of the variant’s spike protein, suggests a reduction in vaccine efficacy against infection and transmission associated with omicron.
“There is some preliminary evidence that the incidence of reinfection has increased in South Africa, which may be associated with humoral (antibody-mediated) immune evasion,” the WHO said.
The diagnostic accuracy of routinely used polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test and antigen-based rapid diagnostic test (Ag-RDT) assays does not appear to be influenced by omicron. Therapeutic interventions for the management of severe or critical COVID-19 symptoms associated with omicron are also expected to remain effective, according to the WHO.
“However, monoclonal antibodies will need to be tested individually, for their antigen binding and virus neutralization and these studies should be prioritized,” the WHO added.
Dec 13, 4:37 am
South Africa’s president tests positive for COVID-19
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is receiving treatment for “mild COVID-19 symptoms” after testing positive for the virus on Sunday, his office said in a statement.
Ramaphosa, 69, began feeling unwell earlier Sunday after leaving a state memorial service in Cape Town in honor of Frederik Willem de Klerk, South Africa’s last apartheid president and a Nobel laureate, who died last month. Ramaphosa, who is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, was experiencing “mild” symptoms and a test confirmed he was infected, according to his office. The statement didn’t say whether he has the omicron variant, which was discovered by scientists in southern Africa last month and is spreading rapidly.
Ramaphosa is self-isolating in Cape Town and is being monitored by the South African Military Health Service. He has delegated all his responsibilities to Deputy President David Mabuza for the next week, his office said.
Last week, Ramaphosa traveled with a delegation to four West African nations. He and the members of the South African delegation were all tested for COVID-19 in each of the countries during their trip. They returned to South Africa on Dec. 8, after testing negative in Senegal. Ramaphosa tested negative again upon arriving in Johannesburg that day, according to his office.
The statement advised people who had contact with the South African president on Sunday to watch for symptoms or to get tested for COVID-19.
“President Ramaphosa says his own infection serves as a caution to all people in the country to be vaccinated and remain vigilant against exposure,” his office said in the statement. “Vaccination remains the best protection against severe illness and hospitalization.”
(NEW YORK) — At least 34 people across five U.S. states have been confirmed dead after a swarm of tornadoes tore through communities across the South and the Midwest over the weekend.
There were at least 40 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 20 confirmed fatalities, according to local officials.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear warned Sunday that the death toll from what he described as “the most devastating tornado event in our state’s history” could exceed 100, but then later said the tally might be closer to 50. Two of his relatives were among those killed.
Beshear said at least 300 members of the Kentucky National Guard have been deployed across the state to help remove debris and search for survivors as well as victims.
“We are still hoping for miracles,” the governor told ABC News’ David Muir on Sunday. “We are finding people and every single moment is incredible.”
“This is going to take years to rebuild,” he added.
Among the dead 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. Ninety-four workers have been accounted for, while eight remain missing, Mayfield Consumer Products CEO Troy Propes told ABC News.
One of the survivors, Kyanna Parsons, recalled hunkering down at the candle factory with her coworkers 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 on 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 saw first responders from Louisiville, 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 on 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 or 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 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 the 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 deployed out into the field, 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.”
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.
A tornadic supercell left an extraordinarily long path of destruction — about 200 miles long — as it swept across four states on Friday night. It was unclear whether the storm involved one or multiple violent tornadoes that moved along the path.
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.
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.
ABC News’ Patrick Doherty, Matt Foster, Jakeira Gilbert, Max Golembo, Will Gretsky and Will McDuffie contributed to this report.
(BAYTOWN, Texas) — One person is dead and 14 are injured — three critically — after a shooting in Baytown, Texas, officials said.
A gunman opened fire on a crowd participating in a celebration of life in the area, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to ABC’s Texas station, KTRK.
KTRK spoke to HCSO’s sergeant, who said a mother was holding a vigil for her son who was killed at his home a couple weeks ago, when an unknown suspect drove down the road shooting rounds into the crowd.
“@HCSOTexas units responded to 1403 N Market Loop. Preliminary info: a large crowd gathered for a celebration of life. A vehicle approached and someone from the vehicle began shooting into the crowd. At least 8 people sustained injuries; 7 are non-fatal, but one has been,” Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez tweeted.
“Update to shooting on N. Market Loop: told the number of wounded individuals is now up to 14; 1 has been pronounced deceased, 3 being taken by Lifeflight in critical condition, and the remaining ones are said to have non/fatal injuries,” he later added.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
ABC News’ Marilyn Heck 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 797,000 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.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Dec 13, 5:29 am
Omicron appears to spread faster and weaken vaccines, WHO says
The omicron variant appears to have a “growth advantage” over the delta variant, the World Health Organization said in a technical brief released Sunday.
“It is spreading faster than the delta variant in South Africa where delta circulation was low, but also appears to spread more quickly than the delta variant in other countries where the incidence of delta is high, such as in the United Kingdom,” the WHO said in the brief, which was dated Friday. “Whether omicron’s observed rapid growth rate in countries with high levels of population immunity is related to immune evasion, intrinsic increased transmissibility, or a combination of both remains uncertain. However, given the current available data, it is likely that omicron will outpace the delta variant where community transmission occurs.”
Meanwhile, preliminary findings from South Africa suggest omicron may cause less severe illness than delta, and all cases of omicron reported in Europe to date have been mild or asymptomatic. But the WHO said “it remains unclear to what extent omicron may be inherently less virulent” and that “more data are needed to understand the severity profile.”
The WHO also noted that “there are limited available data, and no peer-reviewed evidence, on vaccine efficacy or effectiveness to date for omicron.” However, preliminary evidence, and the considerably altered antigenic profile of the variant’s spike protein, suggests a reduction in vaccine efficacy against infection and transmission associated with omicron.
“There is some preliminary evidence that the incidence of reinfection has increased in South Africa, which may be associated with humoral (antibody-mediated) immune evasion,” the WHO said.
The diagnostic accuracy of routinely used polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test and antigen-based rapid diagnostic test (Ag-RDT) assays does not appear to be influenced by omicron. Therapeutic interventions for the management of severe or critical COVID-19 symptoms associated with omicron are also expected to remain effective, according to the WHO.
“However, monoclonal antibodies will need to be tested individually, for their antigen binding and virus neutralization and these studies should be prioritized,” the WHO added.
Dec 13, 4:37 am
South Africa’s president tests positive for COVID-19
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is receiving treatment for “mild COVID-19 symptoms” after testing positive for the virus on Sunday, his office said in a statement.
Ramaphosa, 69, began feeling unwell earlier Sunday after leaving a state memorial service in Cape Town in honor of Frederik Willem de Klerk, South Africa’s last apartheid president and a Nobel laureate, who died last month. Ramaphosa, who is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, was experiencing “mild” symptoms and a test confirmed he was infected, according to his office. The statement didn’t say whether he has the omicron variant, which was discovered by scientists in southern Africa last month and is spreading rapidly.
Ramaphosa is self-isolating in Cape Town and is being monitored by the South African Military Health Service. He has delegated all his responsibilities to Deputy President David Mabuza for the next week, his office said.
Last week, Ramaphosa traveled with a delegation to four West African nations. He and the members of the South African delegation were all tested for COVID-19 in each of the countries during their trip. They returned to South Africa on Dec. 8, after testing negative in Senegal. Ramaphosa tested negative again upon arriving in Johannesburg that day, according to his office.
The statement advised people who had contact with the South African president on Sunday to watch for symptoms or to get tested for COVID-19.
“President Ramaphosa says his own infection serves as a caution to all people in the country to be vaccinated and remain vigilant against exposure,” his office said in the statement. “Vaccination remains the best protection against severe illness and hospitalization.”
(NEW YORK) — At least 22 reported tornadoes ripped across six states overnight, devastating communities and killing dozens of people, including over 70 in Kentucky, during what is typically a quieter time in the United States for the storms.
Tornadoes can happen any time of year, though the greatest threat is typically in spring and summer, according to the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, with the peak season on the earlier side for more southern states. So far this year, the days that reported the highest number of tornadoes were in March, May and July, a National Weather Service tally shows.
That’s what makes the latest activity so rare, experts say.
“Something like this is an unusual event for the month of December. It’s typically our quietest month for tornadoes, especially in Kentucky,” ABC News meteorologist Rob Marciano told “Good Morning America” on Saturday.
It’s unclear if climate change could play a role in the activity, he said.
“There’s no evidence that climate change has any impact on the strength of severe storms or tornadoes,” he said. “That said, to get a tornado this strength and magnitude or length — in December — is incredibly rare.”
An average of 24 tornadoes were reported in the U.S. during the month of December from 1991 to 2010, according to data from NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center. Last year, there were 30 preliminary tornado reports in December.
At least 22 tornadoes alone were reported Friday night through Saturday morning in Arkansas, Kentucky, Illinois, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee. A powerful supercell thunderstorm traveled more than 200 miles, from Arkansas to Kentucky, and likely spawned several massive tornadoes.
Kentucky is combing through the wreckage of likely the deadliest tornado system in state history, with at least four tornadoes reported in western Kentucky.
Among the at least 70 people killed in western Kentucky, dozens were at a candle factory in Mayfield, according to Gov. Andy Beshear.
“This has been the most devastating tornado event in our state’s history,” Beshear said during a press briefing Saturday. “And for those that have seen it, what it’s done here in Graves County and elsewhere, it is indescribable. The level of devastation is unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”
At least two people also were killed in southern Illinois, when an Amazon distribution warehouse in Edwardsville was ravaged by a tornado, officials said.
In Arkansas, two people were reported dead from a tornado, according to Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
The deadliest tornado in Kentucky history was March 27, 1890, when 76 people died, according to the National Weather Service. Beshear said he anticipates the current death toll will exceed 100.
In more recent memory, Kentucky’s only recorded F5 tornado killed more than 30 people on April 4, 1974.
One of Kentucky’s most violent storms to have occurred later in the year was a multiple-vortex tornado that destroyed over 150 buildings in Hopkins County on Nov. 15, 2005, according to NWS. No fatalities were reported.
ABC News’ Kelly McCarthy and Dan Peck contributed to this report.
