(HOUSTON) — Houston police are investigating a New Year’s Day shooting that wounded a 4-year-old girl, identified by her family as Arianna Delane, a niece of George Floyd, the unarmed Black killed by a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020.
Derrick Delane, the child’s father, told ABC Houston station KTRK that the family’s apartment was hit several times by gunfire, some which entered the second story where she was sleeping.
“My daughter jumped up and said, ‘Daddy, I’ve been hit,’ and I was shocked until I seen the blood and I realized my 4-year-old daughter was really hit,” he said.
Houston police said “a suspect or suspects fired several shots” into the apartment on Yellowstone Boulevard around 2:55 a.m. but didn’t identify any victims by name. Four adults and two children were inside.
Detectives A. Carroll and J. Roberts said in a statement on Tuesday that a juvenile female was “struck in the torso” and she was “transported in a private vehicle to an area hospital where she underwent surgery and is currently in stable condition.”
The family said Arianna, who was driven to the hospital by her mother, was hit in the lung and in the liver, with the shots breaking three of her ribs.
Delane said he immediately called 911 after the shooting, but officers didn’t show up until nearly 7 a.m.
Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said in a statement on Tuesday that HPD has launched an internal investigation into the delayed response time.
“I am aware and have concerns regarding the delayed response time in this incident and have initiated an Internal Affairs investigation,” Finner said. “I ask the city continue to pray for the child’s full recovery and assist in providing information that would lead to the arrest of the suspect or suspects responsible.”
Police said on Tuesday that they didn’t have a motive for the shooting or descriptions of potential suspects.
Delane told KTRK that he believes that the family’s home was targeted.
“Why would my house get shot up?” he said. “My daughter don’t know. I can’t explain that to her. As the father, you’re supposed to protect the kids.”
The apartment that was sprayed with gunfire is where the Floyd family gathered in April 2021 to watch the verdict in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who was convicted of murdering Floyd and sentenced to more than 22 years in prison in June.
The HPD didn’t immediately respond to ABC News when asked whether the home could have been targeted.
Authorities are urging anyone with information regarding the shooting to contact the HPD Major Assaults & Family Violence Division at 713-308-8800 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.
ABC News’ Gina Sunseri, Marilyn Heck and Izzy Alvarez contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Almost 80 million people across the United States are on alert this week for heavy snow, brutally cold temperatures, gusty winds and icy conditions.
As of Wednesday morning, the National Weather Service has issued various advisories, alerts, watches and warnings for 32 states — from Oregon to New York — related to two winter storm systems.
The first is currently in the Upper Midwest region, bringing snow and wind across the Northern Plains and Great Lakes. The second is in the Pacific Northwest and Northern Rocky Mountains, bringing rain and wind to the West Coast and heavy snow to the nearby mountain ranges, from the Cascades to the Rockies. This storm could reach the East Coast by Friday morning, bringing more snow to the areas along Interstate 95, one of the busiest travel corridors in the country.
On Wednesday, the first storm will continue to sweep the Great Lakes region, with the heaviest snowfall in parts of Wisconsin, Michigan and western New York. A frigid arctic blast with wind chill temperatures well below zero degrees Fahrenheit will move in behind it, according to the latest forecast. As the cold front swings through the East, temperatures will be mild enough to keep most precipitation in the form of rain showers across the Northeastern states.
However, drizzles of freezing rain are possible Wednesday morning from eastern Virginia to Connecticut before likely changing to rain showers by mid-morning due to warmer temperatures. This could create icy road conditions for morning commuters.
Meanwhile, the second storm will continue to move from West to East across the Rockies, with heavy snow in the mountains and gusty winds hitting Wyoming and Colorado. The system may redevelop in the Southern central states on Thursday, according to the latest forecast. Both long-term storm models, European and American, are predicting snow across the Northeast region on Thursday night into Friday morning.
Hundreds of people were stranded in a massive traffic jam across a 48-mile stretch of I-95 in Virginia, following a multi-vehicle accident that occurred Monday afternoon amid a heavy snowstorm. Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine told ABC News it took him almost 27 hours to drive from his Richmond home to the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C. I-95 in Virginia reopened Tuesday night at about 9 p.m. local time, after being closed for emergency response for most of the day.
Pete Bannan/MediaNews Group/Daily Times via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.4 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 827,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 62% 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.
Jan 05, 6:55 am
Michigan governor isolating after husband’s positive test
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was isolating after her husband, Dr. Marc Mallory, tested positive for COVID-19, her office said in a statement.
Whitmer’s office said the governor tested negative on Tuesday using a rapid test. She was awaiting the results of a PCR test.
“Thankfully, the entire family is fully vaccinated and boosted, so the governor has not tested positive and is not experiencing symptoms,” Whitmer’s office said in a statement. “Until the PCR test comes back, the governor is isolating in a separate area of the house and has taken steps to complete contact tracing to keep others safe.”
Jan 05, 2:43 am
Chicago cancels classes after teachers vote for remote learning
Chicago Public Schools canceled its Wednesday classes after the Chicago Teachers Union voted against in-person learning amid a wave of COVID-19 cases.
All classes, both in-person and virtual, and all after-school activities have been cancelled.
“I understand your frustration and deeply regret this interruption to your child’s learning,” said Pedro Martinez, chief executive of the schools. “We want out children back in their classrooms as soon as possible and will continue working with the CTU to reach an agreement that addressed their concerns and that is in the best interest of all in our CPS community, especially our children.”
About 88% of the union’s leadership and 73% of members voted on Tuesday to return to remote education, the union said in a statement.
“To the parents and guardians of this city, we want you to know that when you put your children in our care we put their well-being and safety first,” the union said in a statement. “We fight for your children like they are our own, because they are. As this pandemic continues, we will do everything in our power to ensure that our classrooms are the safest and healthiest places for your children to learn, thrive and grow.”
Teachers were being locked out of their Google Classrooms, the union said on Twitter.
Jan 05, 1:49 am
Mayo Clinic lays off 1% of staff for vaccine noncompliance
Mayo Clinic said it will lay off about 1% of its staff for failing to get at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by a company deadline.
“While Mayo Clinic is saddened to lose valuable employees, we need to take all steps necessary to keep our patients, workforce, visitors and communities safe. If individuals released from employment choose to get vaccinated at a later date, the opportunity exists for them to apply and return to Mayo Clinic for future job openings,” Mayo Clinic said in a statement to ABC.
Last October, Mayo Clinic had set a Jan. 3 deadline for all employees to get at least their first vaccine dose or face dismissal.
The health care organization said the number of staffers being let go was “comparable to what other health care organizations have experienced in implementing similar vaccine requirement programs.”
Mayo Clinic employs about 73,000 people, according to its website.
Jan 04, 7:53 pm
FDA: Do not swab your throat with at-home COVID-19 tests
The FDA is warning people not to swab their throats as part of an at-home COVID-19 test.
In a statement obtained by ABC News, the FDA said that is not how the tests were designed and it could pose a safety concern.
“The FDA advises that COVID-19 tests should be used as authorized, including following their instructions for use regarding obtaining the sample for testing,” the statement said.
Social media posts promoting at-home COVID-19 rapid test swabbing techniques claim that throat swabs collect a better sample. However, this hasn’t been proven for currently authorized tests.
(SAN ANTONIO, Texas) — An FBI dive team is assisting in the search for missing 3-year-old Lina Sardar Khil, authorities said.
The investigation has led the FBI’s underwater search and evidence response team to an area not previously searched, according to San Antonio Police Chief William McManus.
“We don’t want to leave anything to chance,” McManus told reporters during a press briefing Tuesday evening at the scene of the search. “Everything that we get that has any kind of potential at all, we follow it up. And that’s what we’re doing here today.”
The area is located near the family’s apartment complex, according to ABC San Antonio affiliate KSAT.
The chief said he couldn’t provide any additional information on what led detectives to the area, but noted the search will continue Tuesday until it gets dark, and pick up again Wednesday.
“I wish there was more uplifting information I could give you to at least provide some hope, but I don’t have any of that information, unfortunately,” he said.
Lina Sardar Khil was last seen on Dec. 20 between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. at a park on the 9400 block of Fredericksburg Road in San Antonio, according to police. The park is located near the family’s home at the Villa Del Cabo apartment complex.
Lina has brown eyes and brown hair and was last seen wearing a black jacket, red dress and black shoes. Police issued multiple Amber Alerts and said she could be in “grave danger.”
Lina’s family is part of the Afghan refugee community in San Antonio and speaks Pashto. Police have issued alerts in multiple languages to the community, urging anyone with information to come forward.
FBI joins ‘aggressive’ search
McManus said Tuesday Lina is still considered a missing person.
“Our Missing Person’s Unit is working tirelessly at receiving leads and tips on little Lina’s case,” a spokesperson for SAPD told ABC News. “We will continue to follow every lead, no matter how small, until Lina is located.”
The FBI said it is accepting any tips, video footage or insight on Lina’s whereabouts.
Agent Justin Garris of the FBI’s Justin San Antonio field office told reporters on Dec. 28 the investigation into Lina’s disappearance is “aggressive,” adding that the FBI has utilized its child abduction rapid deployment team, behavioral analysis unit, intelligence response teams and forensic examiners.
Authorities are asking anyone who has information on the case to call SAPD Missing Person’s Unit at 210-207-7660.
Community rallies behind the family
As the search continues, the community is rallying around the family by joining search crews and raising money to help find the child.
The Eagles Flight Advocacy & Outreach organization, a nonprofit in San Antonio, joined the search over the weekend with about 150 people from the Afghan community showing up.
“We can’t sit still. We have to do something,” Pamela Allen, CEO of Eagles Flight Advocacy and Outreach, told ABC News.
Allen said the group has been in touch with police and was actively searching surrounding areas that are points of interest in the case.
“Yesterday we had about 150 Afghani men and children come out and look for this baby,” Allen said, adding that seeing the community come together has been “the most amazing thing.”
The Islamic Center of San Antonio is also supporting the family by offering a $100,000 reward for anyone who can help police find Lina.
The Crime Stoppers of San Antonio has offered an additional $50,000 for information resulting in the arrest or indictment of a suspect accused of any involvement in the disappearance.
Lina’s family moved to the U.S. in 2019, her father, Riaz Sardar Khil, told KENS5 through a translator.
Khil said at first they believed that their daughter could be with another Afghan family in the community but now they believe she may have been abducted.
“During our entire lives we have not been as saddened as we were yesterday and today,” he said.
Culturingua, a San Antonio nonprofit that has been helping with the search for Lina, is a leader of the Afghan refugee response collaboration, a citywide effort to support the large influx of Afghan refugees in San Antonio.
Culturingua CEO Nadia Mavrakis told ABC News on Tuesday the organization’s programs include community development in low income and moderate income areas with a high percentage of refugees, including Lina’s family.
“There is tremendous pressure placed on the refugee resettlement agencies as this high influx of Afghans are coming into the community,” Mavrakis said, adding that the coalition seeks to support the integration of Afghan families in the community through services that go “beyond the scope and capabilities of the case workers.”
Nader Mehdawi, COO of Culturingua, told ABC News one of the “biggest challenges” that families like Lina’s face is the language barrier.
“A lot of the Afghan refugees coming here, they only speak Pashto or Dari,” he said, adding that this is one of the reasons many refugees “struggle to find work.”
Mavrakis, who visited the family on Friday along with other staff members, said that Culturingua is one of the organizations that has offered translation support to the family as they communicate with police and navigate the legal system.
The Afghan community started a GoFundMe account for the Khils so they can focus on the search for Lina and Culturingua has been working to get the word out to the Afghan community and the organizations within their network, she added.
(AURORA, Colo.) — Taniya Freeman, 14, was found on Tuesday in Aurora, Colorado, after being reported missing over the weekend. A spokesperson for the Aurora Police Department said that she’s now home safe with her mother.
Freeman’s father, Nigel Freeman, said the family had no additional comment but that they appreciated everyone who shared the posts about their missing daughter on social media.
Taniya left her father’s home between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. on Jan. 2, her mother, Tiana Wilder, told ABC News earlier on Tuesday.
Wilder urged her daughter to come home.
“We miss her. We love her, of course, and the safest place for her to be is here with us,” she said.
The Aurora Police Department said Taniya has long hair with pink streaks and may have a backpack with her. Wilder said that she believed her daughter was wearing a black hoodie and red pants.
Wilder previously said her daughter didn’t have a history of running away and that there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, as far as arguments or yelling, that night.
“I have no idea who she is with; where she is at and that’s my concern,” Wilder said prior to her daughter being found. “So as far as any harm coming, yeah, I am worried.”
Agent Matthew Longshore, a spokesperson for the Aurora Police Department, had told ABC News that the department was working with limited information. “Our investigators are still following up on different leads and we’re trying to find her,” he said.
“If her friends know something, tell us. And [don’t] think that they are snitching on her or getting her trouble,” Wilder had said. “Whatever they know that could be helpful is what we need to know.”
(NEW YORK) — Some state-run vaccine lotteries did not help increase COVID-19 immunization rates, a new study suggests.
Over the spring and summer, at least 19 states — including California, New York, Ohio and West Virginia — tried to incentivize unvaccinated individuals to get shots, offering cash prizes, free tickets, guns, college scholarships and trucks.
However, research from the Boston University School of Medicine found some of these prizes had little to no effect on convincing residents to get vaccinated against COVID.
For the study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, the team compared vaccination rates between 15 states that offered lotteries with cash prizes and 31 states that did not between May 24, 2021 and July 19, 2021.
Data of daily rates of first doses came from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The study found that about four weeks before the lottery announcement, the lottery states were vaccinating an average of 225 per 100,000 people with their first doses.
Immediately after the lottery announcement, the rate increased by 1.1 per 100,000 people.
However, by the fourth week following the lottery, the rate had fallen to fewer than 100 per 100,000 people receiving their first shots.
The trend was similar among U.S. states without lotteries, which experienced a decline in rates nearly mirroring those seen in the lottery states.
Vaccine lotteries had initially been deemed a success after reports that vaccination rates had significantly boosted, such as in Ohio, where officials said they saw a 55% increase in vaccinations for young adults following the state’s Vax-A-Million lottery.
However, it appears the boosts were likely temporary.
One limitation of the study is the small number of states analyzed. Because researchers only looked at 15 states with lotteries, small increases in vaccination rates may not have been detected.
The team insists, however, that the findings are strong and that more research should be conducted on vaccine incentives that work.
“This study did not find evidence that vaccine lottery incentive programs in the U.S. were associated with significantly increased rates of COVID-19 vaccinations,” the researchers wrote.
“Given the lack of a strong association between state lottery-based vaccine incentives and increased vaccination rates, further studies of strategies to increase vaccination rates are needed.”
A previous study from Boston University found similar results when researchers looked at Ohio, specifically comparing vaccination rates from one month before the lottery started — April 15 to May 12 — and one month after the lottery was announced — May 13 to June 9.
They found the daily vaccination rates declined from 485 shots for every 100,000 adults prior to the lottery to 101 for every 100,000 by early June.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.4 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 827,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 62% 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:
Jan 04, 3:42 pm
Florida hospitals say half of COVID patients admitted for other reasons
At least three major health systems in Florida said half of their COVID-19 patients were originally admitted to hospitals for other reasons.
During a briefing about the pandemic in Jacksonville on Tuesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis said about 50% of COVID hospitalizations at Orlando Health and Miami Jackson Health and 60% at Tallahassee Memorial were being treated for other reasons and learned were positive for the virus during their stays.
In a tweet, Miami Jackson Health said its exact figure is 53%.
DeSantis called on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to change the way it reports COVID-19 hospitalizations.
“It really isn’t instructive if you have something that is very widespread and mild, and it’s catching people as they go into the hospital with positive tests, but they’re not actually having any clinical diagnosis,” he said.
It comes one day after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said hospitals in her state would be surveyed about how many patients were being admitted to hospitals for COVID as opposed to with COVID.
-ABC News’ Will McDuffie
Jan 04, 2:15 pm
Daily COVID deaths in US up 10% in last week
The U.S. is recording 1,200 new COVID-19 deaths every day, up by about 10% in the last week, according to federal data.
Nearly 828,000 Americans have now died due to the virus. Just three weeks ago, the death toll surpassed 800,000.
Additionally, more than 112,000 Americans are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, with just under a fifth of those patients — nearly 20,000 — in intensive care units.
On average, more than 12,700 people in the U.S. are being admitted to hospitals with COVID-19 daily, a figure which has nearly doubled over the last month.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Jan 04, 2:13 pm
COVID vaccines not linked to premature births: CDC study
COVID-19 vaccines do not increase the risk of premature or low-weight birth among babies born to pregnant vaccinated women compared with those born to unvaccinated women, according to a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published Tuesday.
Researchers from Yale looked at electronic health data from more than 40,000 pregnant women from the CDC’s Vaccine Safety Datalink.
There were 7.0 premature births for every 100,000 babies born among unvaccinated women compared to 4.9 births per 100,000 for babies born to women who received a COVID vaccine while pregnant.
Additionally, rates of low-birth weight were 8.2 per 100,000 in both the unvaccinated and vaccinated groups.
The team said the findings add to a growing body of evidence that getting vaccinated against COVID is safe for pregnant people and for their babies.
Pregnant women are at increased risk for severe illness, hospitalization and death from COVID-19, but only 40% have been vaccinated, CDC data shows.
Jan 04, 1:19 pm
Omicron variant makes up 95% of COVID cases in US
The omicron variant accounts for 95% of all new COVID-19 cases in the U.S., according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Tuesday.
In early December, the highly transmissible variant made up 0.6% of new infections.
Meanwhile, the delta variant — responsible for the summer surge — makes up 4.6% of new cases, the CDC said.
The data also showed the omicron variant is dominant in all regions of the country. In the New York-New Jersey region and in the Southeast, the variant is linked to 98% of new infections.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Jan 04, 12:27 pm
UK records more than 200,000 COVID cases
The United Kingdom recorded more than 200,000 cases of COVID-19, according to the UK Health Security Agency.
The 218,724 new infections is the highest figure ever reported in a single day and an increase of nearly 60% from the number of cases reported on the same day last week.
However, there has been a backlog of data due to the holiday weekend so the number includes four days of data from Northern Ireland and two days of data from Wales, the UKHSA said.
-ABC News’ Mike Trew
Jan 04, 10:20 am
Sen. Rob Portman tests positive for COVID
Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, tested positive for COVID-19 last night, according to a press release.
Portman took an at-home COVID test which came back positive. The senator said he is asymptomatic and feels fine.
“I have been in contact with the Attending Physician and my personal doctor. I am following their medical advice and following CDC guidelines and isolating for the recommended five days,” Portman said in the statement.
He will be working remotely this week, but will not be able to be in Washington, D.C., for votes.
Jan 04, 9:54 am
Sweden’s King and Queen test positive for COVID-19
Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia tested positive for COVID-19 last night, according to a palace statement.
Both are fully vaccinated and have received a third booster shot.
The king and queen said they have mild symptoms and are feeling well, in the statement.
They are isolating at home and contact tracing is ongoing.
Jan 04, 6:36 am
US reports 1 million new daily COVID cases
More than 1 million new COVID-19 cases were reported in the United States on Monday, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The 1,082,549 new infections were about double last week’s record daily cases, according to the university’s data. It was unclear whether the newly reported cases included backlogs from holiday testing.
The US recorded 1,688 deaths related to COVID-19 on Monday, below the record high of 4,442, set on Jan. 20, 2021, according to the university’s data.
Jan 04, 6:32 am
US reports record 325,000 new pediatric COVID infections last week
A record 325,000 children tested positive for COVID-19 last week amid the nation’s most significant COVID-19 infection surge yet, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.
Children accounted for about 17.4% of last week’s reported COVID-19 cases, down from previous weeks, when children accounted for more than a quarter of all new cases.
A total of nearly 7.9 million children have tested positive for the virus, since the onset of the pandemic.
ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Jan 03, 4:02 pm
New York looking into COVID-19 hospitalizations that began for other reasons
New York’s hospitals will be required to report a breakdown of how many COVID-19 patients were admitted due to the coronavirus and how many were admitted for other needs and only discovered they were infected during their stays.
During a COVID-19 briefing on Monday, Gov. Kathy Hochul cited anecdotal reports of as many as 50% of patients at some hospitals testing positive for the virus who were actually admitted for other reasons, such as car accidents.
“I just want to always be honest with New Yorkers about how bad this is,” Hochul said. “Yes, the sheer number of people infected are high, but I want to see whether or not the hospitalizations correlate with that.”
She continued, “And I’m anticipating to see that at least a certain percentage overall are not being treated for COVID.”
Hospitals will begin reporting their breakdowns Tuesday, but it’s unclear how soon the data will be publicly available.
-ABC News’ Joshua Hoyos and Will McDuffie
Jan 03, 3:11 pm
Surgeon general warns next few weeks ‘will be tough’
U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy warned that COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations will continue to increase as the omicron variant rapidly spreads across the country.
“The next few weeks are going to be tough for us,” he told ABC’s “The View” on Monday. “We’re already seeing record levels of cases, and we’re seeing hospitalizations starting to tick up. We’re seeing some of our hospital systems getting strained at this point.”
Information from South Africa and the United Kingdom indicates omicron could be less severe than previous COVID-19 variants, Murthy said.
“We’re still going to see a lot of people get sick and a lot of hospitalizations, but the overall severity may end up being significantly lower,” he said.
Murthy said both South Africa and the U.K. “had a very rapid rise, but then they had a very steep fall” in cases
“I’m hoping that that’s what happens here too,” he added.
(NEW YORK) — The coldest temperatures of this season so far have created black ice conditions in the mid-Atlantic states on Tuesday. A freeze warning was issued Tuesday along the Gulf Coast, where temperatures are near or below freezing.
A record 6.9 inches of snow fell at Reagan National Airport yesterday, with up to 10 inches of snow around the Washington, D.C., metro area.
The highest snowfall totals were in Virginia, Delaware and southern New Jersey where more than 14 inches of snow fell.
An Amtrak train with 220 passengers and six crew members is stranded in Lynchburg, Virginia, due to Monday’s storm. The train, which was headed to New York from New Orleans, was forced to return to Lynchburg after a separate train encountered downed power lines and trees, according to ABC 13 News.
A new cross-country storm could bring more snow for the Interstate 95 corridor following a heavy snowstorm. Traffic on I-95 was so bad, Virginia Sen. Tim Kane said he was trapped on the highway for 19 hours, following a multi-vehicle accident.
Interstate 84 was closed in Oregon on Monday due to whiteout conditions, leaving trucks and cars stuck on the highway.
Twenty states from California to Michigan are on alert for heavy snow and gusty winds. As much as 2 to 3 feet of snow is possible in the northern Rockies, with wind gusts over 75 miles per hour in some areas.
There is also a blizzard warning in place for the eastern Dakotas and northwestern Minnesota along with winter weather advisories and winter storm warnings. Several inches of snow is expected to fall Tuesday through Friday.
Wind chill alerts are in place from Montana to Iowa as wind chills on Wednesday morning will be well below zero. Parts of Montana and the Dakotas could see wind chills 30 to 50 degrees below zero on Tuesday night into Wednesday.
A new storm is now in the West moving through the Rockies, bringing heavy snow. This storm could reach the East Coast by Friday morning, bringing more snow to the I-95 corridor.
Both long-term storm models, European and American, are showing snow for the I-95 corridor by Friday morning.
Another bitter cold blast is on its way for the Midwest and eventually into the Northeast, behind this next storm. Temperatures could reach a low of zero degrees in Chicago and the teens in D.C. by the weekend.
(AURORA, Colo.) — A 14-year-old girl named Taniya Freeman went missing in Aurora, Colorado, over the weekend. Her family and the Aurora Police Department are now asking for the public’s help to locate her.
Taniya left her father’s home between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. on Jan. 2 and they haven’t seen her since, her mother, Tiana Wilder, told ABC News.
Wilder urged her daughter to come home.
“We miss her. We love her, of course, and the safest place for her to be is here with us,” she said.
The Aurora Police Department said Taniya has long hair with pink streaks and may have a backpack with her. Wilder said that she believed her daughter was wearing a black hoodie and red pants.
Wilder said that her daughter doesn’t have a history of running away and that there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, as far as arguments or yelling, that night.
“I have no idea who she is with; where she is at and that’s my concern,” Wilder said. “So as far as any harm coming, yeah, I am worried.”
Agent Matthew Longshore, a spokesperson for the Aurora Police Department, told ABC News that the department was working with limited information. “Our investigators are still following up on different leads and we’re trying to find her,” he said.
“If her friends know something, tell us. And [don’t] think that they are snitching on her or getting her trouble,” Wilder said. “Whatever they know that could be helpful is what we need to know.”
If you have any information about Taniya’s whereabouts, the police department said you can call Aurora911 at 303-627-3100.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.4 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 827,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 62% 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:
Jan 04, 9:54 am
Sweden’s King and Queen test positive for COVID-19
Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia tested positive for COVID-19 last night, according to a palace statement.
Both are fully vaccinated and have received a third booster shot.
The king and queen said they have mild symptoms and are feeling well, in the statement.
They are isolating at home and contact tracing is ongoing.
Jan 04, 6:36 am
US reports 1 million new daily COVID cases
More than 1 million new COVID-19 cases were reported in the United States on Monday, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The 1,082,549 new infections were about double last week’s record daily cases, according to the university’s data. It was unclear whether the newly reported cases included backlogs from holiday testing.
The US recorded 1,688 deaths related to COVID-19 on Monday, below the record high of 4,442, set on Jan. 20, 2021, according to the university’s data.
Jan 04, 6:32 am
US reports record 325,000 new pediatric COVID infections last week
A record 325,000 children tested positive for COVID-19 last week amid the nation’s most significant COVID-19 infection surge yet, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.
Children accounted for about 17.4% of last week’s reported COVID-19 cases, down from previous weeks, when children accounted for more than a quarter of all new cases.
A total of nearly 7.9 million children have tested positive for the virus, since the onset of the pandemic.
ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Jan 03, 4:02 pm
New York looking into COVID-19 hospitalizations that began for other reasons
New York’s hospitals will be required to report a breakdown of how many COVID-19 patients were admitted due to the coronavirus and how many were admitted for other needs and only discovered they were infected during their stays.
During a COVID-19 briefing on Monday, Gov. Kathy Hochul cited anecdotal reports of as many as 50% of patients at some hospitals testing positive for the virus who were actually admitted for other reasons, such as car accidents.
“I just want to always be honest with New Yorkers about how bad this is,” Hochul said. “Yes, the sheer number of people infected are high, but I want to see whether or not the hospitalizations correlate with that.”
She continued, “And I’m anticipating to see that at least a certain percentage overall are not being treated for COVID.”
Hospitals will begin reporting their breakdowns Tuesday, but it’s unclear how soon the data will be publicly available.
-ABC News’ Joshua Hoyos and Will McDuffie
Jan 03, 3:11 pm
Surgeon general warns next few weeks ‘will be tough’
U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy warned that COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations will continue to increase as the omicron variant rapidly spreads across the country.
“The next few weeks are going to be tough for us,” he told ABC’s “The View” on Monday. “We’re already seeing record levels of cases, and we’re seeing hospitalizations starting to tick up. We’re seeing some of our hospital systems getting strained at this point.”
Information from South Africa and the United Kingdom indicates omicron could be less severe than previous COVID-19 variants, Murthy said.
“We’re still going to see a lot of people get sick and a lot of hospitalizations, but the overall severity may end up being significantly lower,” he said.
Murthy said both South Africa and the U.K. “had a very rapid rise, but then they had a very steep fall” in cases
“I’m hoping that that’s what happens here too,” he added.
