(LOS ANGELES) — Anne Heche is not expected to survive the brain injury she suffered in a fiery car crash in Los Angeles and is being kept on life support to determine if her organs are viable, according to her family.
The family and friends of the Emmy-winning actress released a statement Thursday evening about her comatose condition which is not expected to improve.
“Unfortunately, due to her accident, Anne Heche suffered a severe anoxic brain injury and remains in a coma, in critical condition. She is not expected to survive,” the statement read.
“It has long been her choice to donate her organs and she is being kept on life support to determine if any are viable.”
Heche’s loved one went on to describe her as having a “huge heart” and “generous spirit.”
“More than her extraordinary talent, she saw spreading kindness and joy as her life’s work — especially moving the needle for acceptance of who you love. She will be remembered for her courageous honesty and dearly missed for her light,” the statement continued.
Heche, 53, is “unconscious” and in “critical condition” after she was involved in the one-car crash, which also damaged a Los Angeles home last week, her representative confirmed to ABC News on Monday.
The Los Angeles Police Department said Thursday that they received results of blood that was drawn shortly after the crash, which showed she had narcotics in her system.
Meredith Deliso, Alex Stone and Josh Margolin contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Multiple sources familiar with the investigation say the Justice Department and the FBI believed former President Donald Trump continued to keep sensitive classified documents that had national security implications and that in recent weeks additional information came in suggesting that Trump was not complying with requests to provide the information the Justice Department believed he had in his possession.
The information was sensitive enough that authorities wanted to take it back into possession immediately.
Additional sources tell ABC News part of the information investigators were looking for included material labeled “special access” which is material accessible only by the highest level security clearances only available to a specific limited number of individuals.
Multiple sources tell ABC News federal investigators have questioned many individuals close to the former president about these materials including some members of his current staff in addition to some former White House officials.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(ATLANTA) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its COVID-19 guidance Thursday to ease recommendations for people who are unvaccinated and have been exposed to COVID-19.
Previously, the CDC advised that people who were unvaccinated or hadn’t received their booster shots should quarantine for five days after exposure. If no symptoms appear, the quarantine can end.
The new guidance no longer recommends that unvaccinated people quarantine after exposure, instead suggesting they mask up for 10 days and get tested five days after they were exposed.
This is the same guidance that was previously given to vaccinated and boosted people who were exposed to COVID and essentially simplifies the CDC’s quarantine recommendation. Americans who are exposed to the virus, regardless of vaccination status, no longer need to stay at home if they’ve had an exposure, per the CDC’s latest guidelines.
“We’re in a stronger place today as a nation, with more tools — like vaccination, boosters, and treatments — to protect ourselves, and our communities, from severe illness from COVID-19,” Dr. Greta Massetti, chief of the field epidemiology and prevention branch at the CDC and one of the authors of the updated guidance, said in a statement.
“This guidance acknowledges that the pandemic is not over, but also helps us move to a point where COVID-19 no longer severely disrupts our daily lives,” she said.
The CDC also included updated guidance on how people can use testing to end their isolation after getting sick with COVID-19, recommending two negative tests 48 hours apart before going out in public again without a mask.
The new guidance recommends people take their first test on day six of isolation if they’re fever-free, with a second rapid test 48 hours later.
If both tests are negative, people can leave their homes and not use a mask around others. Massetti said the CDC decided to recommend two tests, two days apart, because of recent Food and Drug Administration studies showing the serial testing, or testing multiple times, improves efficacy of rapid tests.
“We want to ensure that when people are using an antigen test, that we’re relying on the most accurate information, avoiding potentially making decisions based on false negative results,” Massetti told reporters Thursday.
Waiting 48 hours before taking another test mitigates “some of those performance issues,” she said.
But officials were clear that the CDC still considers testing optional and doesn’t expect all Americans to have access to tests.
“We are still recommending that decisions for ending isolation should be based on symptoms and time,” Massetti said.
The guidance Massetti referred to suggests that anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 should isolate for at least five days.
If the person remains fever-free for 24 hours without the use of medication by day 5, or never had symptoms, they can end isolation but are advised to wear a mask for a full 10 days.
The CDC also said it was no longer recommending schools use test-to-stay, which allowed students who were close contacts of those who test positive for COVID to continue to attend in-person classes as long as they remain asymptomatic and continue to test negative.
Massetti said because unvaccinated and vaccinated people no longer are advised to quarantine, test-to-stay was no longer necessary.
“Because we’re no longer recommending quarantine, we’re no longer including a section on test-to-stay because the practice of handling exposures would involve masking rather than a quarantine, and test-to-stay was an alternative to quarantine,” she said.
The CDC also said it was removing its recommendation of testing asymptomatic people without known exposures in most community settings and deemphasizing six feet of social distancing, which has been recommended since the early days of the pandemic.
“Physical distance is just one component of how to protect yourself and others,” the guidance reads. “It is important to consider the risk in a particular setting, including local COVID-19 Community Levels and the important role of ventilation, when assessing the need to maintain physical distance.”
Kevin C. Downs/The New York Post/Bloomberg via Getty Images, FILE
(NEW YORK) — Allen Weisselberg, for decades the chief financial officer of former President Donald Trump’s namesake family business, is due in a New York court Friday for a hearing in his criminal case.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office charged Weisselberg and the Trump Organization last summer with tax fraud after they were accused of compensating employees “off the books” in order to pay less in taxes. Weisselberg pleaded not guilty.
According to the charging documents, Weisselberg avoided taxes on more than $1.7 million in the past 15 years, resulting from the payment of his rent on an apartment in a Trump-owned building and related expenses that prosecutors said included cars and private school tuition for his grandchildren.
The court hearing is a capstone on an extraordinary week for Trump that began with an FBI search of his Florida residence and included a deposition as part of a civil investigation by the New York Attorney general’s office.
Trump has not been charged in the Manhattan DA case but the ongoing criminal investigation, which parallels the New York Attorney General Letitia James’ civil case, may have factored into his decision to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during Wednesday’s deposition.
The hearing for Weisselberg is expected to be largely procedural but could include the setting of a trial date, which is expected sometime in October.
Weisselberg recently switched up his legal team, adding Nick Gravante, who represented two other Trump Org employees that avoided charges in the Manhattan DA’s probe.
“If there was a deal to be reached in this case, there has been plenty of time to do it,” Mr. Gravante said. “My mission now is to lead this trial team and win, and that’s what I intend to do.”
(MANCHESTER, N.H.) — Authorities have determined that Harmony Montgomery, a little girl who disappeared in 2019, was murdered in Manchester, New Hampshire, in early December 2019, officials announced Thursday.
Harmony would be 8 years old if alive today.
Harmony’s remains have not been found but “multiple sources of investigative information, including biological evidence,” led to the conclusion that she’s dead, New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella said at a news conference.
The missing persons case is now a homicide investigation, he said.
“Our investigators will continue to seek justice and look into the circumstances of Harmony’s murder and search for her remains,” Formella said.
“I’m beyond saddened,” Manchester Police Chief Allen Aldenberg said.
“There have been many discussions, speculations and questions relative to where the system failed Harmony, and I myself continue to share the same concerns and still have many remaining questions,” he said. “However, the homicide of this little girl rests with the person or persons who committed this horrific act. The Manchester Police Department will do everything within the limits of the law to ensure that the responsible person or persons for the murder of Harmony are brought to justice.”
Aldenberg said he believes “there are people out there in the community that have information about this investigation who have yet to come forward.
“If you are that person, I implore you to do so now and come forward,” he said. “Do it for this little girl.”
Aldenberg urged anyone with information to call the tip line at 603-203-6060.
The attorney general and police chief did not take questions from the media at Thursday’s news conference. No suspect was named.
Harmony’s mother, Crystal Sorey, had custody of her until 2018, according to a state report released in February. In 2019, a Massachusetts court ordered Harmony be sent to live with her father, Adam Montgomery, in New Hampshire, state officials said.
Harmony’s last confirmed home was in Manchester with her father, her stepmother Kayla Montgomery, and her two half-siblings, according to state officials.
Sorey said the last time she saw Harmony was via FaceTime in spring 2019, officials said.
In July 2019, an anonymous call was made to New Hampshire’s Division for Children, Youth and Families alleging that in a visit a week earlier, he or she saw Harmony “had a black eye that Adam Montgomery admitted to causing,” the report said. The same day as the anonymous call, a case worker visited and didn’t see a black eye on Harmony, the report said.
One week later, that same case worker noted a red mark and faded bruising under Harmony’s eyelid, and both Harmony and Adam Montgomery told the worker the mark was from being hit by a toy while playing, the report said.
In subsequent visits to the home, “the children appeared happy and healthy,” the report said. In the last visit, in October 2019, case workers found the abuse allegations unfounded, but added, “the situation was scored high risk for future child welfare involvement pursuant to the Risk Assessment tool citing the history of substance use, prior family history with child protection, and economic challenges,” according to the report.
In January 2020, Adam Montgomery told the child protective services worker that Harmony had been living in Massachusetts with her mother since Thanksgiving 2019, the report said. The worker left a voicemail with Sorey to confirm Harmony lived there, but never heard back, the report said.
In September 2021, someone close to Harmony’s mother contacted the Division for Children, Youth and Families with concerns, and the agency determined Harmony had never been registered for school in Manchester, the report said.
The Division for Children, Youth and Families then searched for Adam and Kayla Montgomery.
When police found Adam Montgomery in December 2021, he gave the authorities “contradictory and unconvincing explanations of Harmony’s whereabouts,” the report said. Adam Montgomery allegedly told police Harmony’s mother had picked her up, even though Kayla Montgomery told police that Adam Montgomery told her he drove Harmony back to her mother on the day after Thanksgiving 2019, according to the report.
At that point, the investigation became a missing child case, the report said.
(CAIRO, Egypt) — The latest murder of a young woman in Egypt who had allegedly rejected the advances of a fellow student has sparked outrage and renewed calls for Egyptian lawmakers to take action.
Islam Mohamed, a 22-year-old student at Al-Shorouk Academy in the Greater Cairo area, was detained early Wednesday on suspicion of killing his 20-year-old classmate, Salma Bahgat. He is accused of “repeatedly stabbing her with a knife” on Tuesday as she was leaving a building in Zagazig, northeast of Cairo, according to a statement from Egyptian prosecutors.
Prosecutors, citing accounts from witnesses and relatives, said Bahgat had had twice declined marriage proposals from Mohamed, who in turn made death threats against her. Bahgat’s parents told authorities that Mohamed’s proposals were rejected because of his “misbehavior and drug abuse,” according to prosecutors.
In a statement released Tuesday evening, Al-Shorouk Academy mourned the death of Bahgat, who was studying media, saying: “She was an example of a diligent and distinguished student, on the moral and scientific levels, throughout her four years at the academy.”
Bahgat’s killing marked the second such campus femicide to occur in Egypt within the past two months, prompting outcry on social media.
“Another woman killed for saying ‘No,'” one Twitter user wrote.
“I cant believe in this amount of time another incident like Nayera happened again,” another user said.
In June, 21-year-old Nayera Ashraf was stabbed to death in front of her university in Mansoura, north of Cairo, by a fellow student whose marriage proposal she had turned down. The gruesome incident, which was videotaped by bystanders, sent shockwaves across the North African nation.
Ashraf’s killer, 21-year-old Mohamed Adel, gained sympathy during his trial from some commentators on social media who called the murder a “crime of passion,” because they said he was left heartbroken.
“Misogyny is deep-rooted in Egyptian culture. A kid is raised watching his father beat his mother, for instance,” Said Sadek, a professor of political sociology at the American University in Cairo, told ABC News on Thursday.
“The media that frown upon any actress who wears revealing dresses and religious scholars who demand that women cover up from head to toe are also to blame for fueling such sentiments,” he added. “We turn the victim into a criminal and the harassers into heroes.”
Adel was ultimately convicted and sentenced to death last month. The court also took the unusual step of calling for changes to Egyptian law to allow executions to be broadcast live as a deterrent to others. Capital punishment in Egypt is rarely broadcast or carried out in public.
In Egypt, murder is punishable by death. More people were sentenced to death there last year than in any other country. In terms of the number of executions carried out, Egypt had the third highest, according to human rights group Amnesty International.
Nevertheless, critics argue that Egyptian law must be strengthened against gender-based violence, threats or blackmailing, which have been on the rise in recent years.
Sadek cited one example of a man who spent just a few weeks in prison after sexually harassing and beating up a woman in a Cairo shopping mall in 2015. Two years later, he attacked her with a knife, leaving a deep cut in her face, Sadek said.
According to a 2015 survey conducted by the United Nations Population Fund and the Egyptian government, about 7.8 million women in Egypt suffer from all forms of violence every year, “whether perpetrated by a spouse/fiancé or individuals in her close circles or from strangers in public places.”
Sexual violence is also rampant, with over 99.3% of Egyptian girls and women experiencing some form of sexual harassment in their lifetime, according to a U.N. report released in 2013.
Last year, the Parliament of Egypt approved tougher penalties for sexual harassment, making the crime punishable by a minimum of five years in prison. But women rights groups insist more should be done, calling on Egyptian Parliament to fast-track a draft unified law for combating violence against women. The proposed legislation has been in the works for several months.
In the wake of Bahgat’s killing, almost two dozen groups, including the Giza-based Center for Egyptian Women’s Legal Assistance, issued a statement Wednesday calling on Egyptian authorities “to take all the measures to protect women and girls, who have the right to live safely in their homeland.”
“Violence has become a culture nurtured by a societal complicity that justifies it, condemns the victim and sympathizes with the perpetrator,” they said. “We encourage women and girls to urgently report any threats they receive to authorities.”
(NEW YORK) — The current teacher shortage facing the United States is a “five-alarm crisis,” according to Rebecca Pringle, the president of the National Education Association, the largest teachers’ union in the country.
“We have been sounding the alarm for almost a decade and a half that we have a crisis in the number of students who are going into the teaching profession and the number of teachers who are leaving it,” said Pringle. “But, of course, as with everything else, the pandemic just made it worse.”
Pringle spoke to ABC News’ “GMA3” Thursday about the shortage of nearly 300,000 educators and support staff across the country.
GMA3: How bad is the teacher shortage this upcoming school year?
PRINGLE: This is that time of year back to school when educators, parents, students are excited and they’re hopeful. This year, of course, is good as students go back to school.
We are concerned about the teacher shortages and staff shortages throughout this country, in rural and suburban and urban areas. And I will tell you that we know that if we don’t have enough educators, then our students aren’t going to have the one-on-one attention they need and deserve.
GMA3: Is there a way for you to gauge how bad it is this year compared to previous years?
PRINGLE: We know that this has been a chronic problem. This is not new. We have been sounding the alarm for almost a decade and a half that we have a crisis in the number of students who are going into the teaching profession and the number of teachers who are leaving it.
But of course, as with everything else, the pandemic just made it worse. We are estimating about 300,000 shortages of teachers and support staff across this nation as students go back to school. But I will tell you that we have been sounding this alarm since last year and we have been working really, really hard to try to do something about it.
GMA3: According to the National Education Association, 55% of educators are saying that they are thinking about leaving the profession earlier than they anticipated… You mentioned the pandemic as perhaps why this is happening, but how do you combat that?
PRINGLE: We were shocked when we saw those statistics of the number of educators who are planning on leaving the profession. And it’s even higher for Black teachers and Latina teachers. We know how important it is to have a diverse workforce. We have been working to try to address those issues.
One of the things that I’ve learned from educators — I traveled all over the country, from Kentucky to California to Maine to Wisconsin to Illinois — and they all said the same thing. This is what they need to come into the profession and stay in the profession. They need professional respect.
For them that is three things: Professional authority to make teaching and learning decisions for their students. Professional rights to have the conditions and resources to do the jobs they love. And professional pay that reflects the importance of the work they do.
GMA3: What does a child’s education, their day, their classroom look like with this type of teacher shortage?
PRINGLE: The concerns that our educators and parents have raised, which are playing out, [and] played out last year… is that we had to double-up classes.
[Also] we had to not necessarily offer the special education services that our special education students need. We knew that there were too many educators who were overwhelmed by the number of students that they were trying to meet the individual needs of, and we don’t have enough substitutes.
So, we found that many of our educators were coming into school sick and they weren’t taking care of themselves. We know that the well-being of our teachers and our educators absolutely impacts the well-being of our students. So, this is a huge problem.
But we are working to use the funding from the American Rescue Plan to actually bring the resources that we need into schools to make those long-term solutions work right now.
GMA3: And speaking of a shortage of resources, obviously, so many people are in financial distress during these economic times. And the average back-to-school shopping for parents sets most families back $864. That is a significant burden for so many families. Is there anything that can be done to ease that burden?
PRINGLE: We encourage everyone to continue to push to make sure their school districts, and use the American Rescue funds, to make sure that the schools have the resources that students need. And parents and families don’t have to supply as much as they have been.
We also know there is an increase in the number of dollars that teachers are pulling out from their own pockets, taking away from their own families, to try to meet those needs and those gaps that have been exacerbated by the pandemic, from food crisis to housing crisis, health care crisis.
We know all of that has impacted our communities of color, especially in those communities where they have been chronically underserved. So, we ask that people continue to raise their voices and join with us… to make sure that all of our schools are funded, so all of our students have what they need and they deserve.
Albuquerque Police Department via AFP/Getty Images
(ALBUQUERQUE, N.M) — The man charged in the killings of at least two of the four Muslim men killed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in recent months has a history of arrests for domestic violence, police said.
Muhammad Syed, 51, is charged with murder in the shooting deaths of 25-year-old Naeem Hussain on Aug. 5 and 41-year-old Aftab Hussein on July 26, according to the Albuquerque Police Department. Syed denied being involved in the deaths of the men after he was arrested, according to police.
Investigators said they are working with the district attorney’s office on potential charges for the murders of the other two local men who were killed within months of one another.
Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, 27, was found fatally shot on Aug. 1. Mohammad Ahmadi, 62, was killed last November outside a business he ran with his brother, police said.
The victims of the shootings in August and July were from Pakistan. Ahmadi was from Afghanistan.
Syed moved to the U.S. from Afghanistan several years ago and has since been arrested at least twice on misdemeanor domestic violence charges, police said.
According to a criminal complaint from May 2018, Syed and his wife had an argument that turned physical while in a state Department of Human Services office.
Syed claimed his wife slapped him while they were arguing in the car and kicked him while in the waiting room of the office, the complaint says. His wife told police Syed pulled her by the hair and kicked her out of the vehicle, forcing her to walk for almost two hours to the office. When she arrived, the argument continued and she claimed Syed grabbed her by the hair and threw her to the ground, according to the complaint.
An employee at the office told police that she found Syed’s wife on the floor with a large piece of hair that had fallen to the ground, the complaint says. Employees stated that Syed arrived about an hour and a half before his wife arrived, according to the complaint.
He was placed under arrest for battery on a household member, but his wife did not want to pursue charges or participate in prosecution, which led to the dismissal of the case, according to a spokesperson from the Office of the Second Judicial District Attorney.
In December 2018, Syed’s son called officers to the home, and claimed that the father was “striking” the mother and son, according to a criminal complaint. The son had locked himself in his room after the son had been hit by his father with a metal spoon, which drew blood on the back of his head, the complaint says.
The son advised officers that Syed had routinely beaten him and his mother in the past. Syed denied any violence, the criminal complaint showed. Victims were again unwilling to pursue charges or cooperate with police.
An attorney for Syed did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
“I hope that our community can breathe a sigh of relief and be assured about safety and security that our main suspect has been put behind bars and that’s where he belongs,” Nihad Awad, the national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said at a press conference Aug. 10.
(WASHINGTON) — Congressional Republicans were quick to pan Merrick Garland’s Thursday remarks on the FBI search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago — calling the attorney general’s comments insufficient and insisting the Justice Department release more information behind the unprecedented raid even as Garland said he wants the search warrant unsealed.
But GOP lawmakers said the Justice Department’s motion to unseal parts of the warrant would not cut it, demanding that more information behind the search’s genesis was needed given the gravity of the operation at a former president’s home.
Sources previously told ABC News it was in connection to documents that Trump took with him when he departed Washington, including some records the National Archives said were marked classified.
“The primary reason the Attorney General and FBI are being pushed to disclose why the search was necessary is because of the deep mistrust of the FBI and DOJ when it comes to all things Trump,” tweeted South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a close Trump ally.
“What I am looking for is the predicate for the search. Was the information provided to the judge sufficient and necessary to authorize a raid on the former president’s home within ninety days of the midterm election?” Graham wrote. “I am urging, actually insisting, the DOJ and the FBI lay their cards on the table as to why this course of action was necessary. Until that is done the suspicion will continue to mount.”
Other Republicans directly criticized Garland, who said at a brief press conference that he signed off on the search warrant for Trump’s residence in Palm Beach, Florida.
“Merrick Garland personally approved a search warrant to take down Joe Biden’s top political opponent. This is a politically-motivated witch hunt,” tweeted Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee.
“The FBI and DOJ became politicized under Obama and this has continued under Biden. The FBI has become an attack dog to help the Democrats achieve their own political ambitions and silence dissenters,” added Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene went even further.
“We must defund the FBI, dismantle the DOJ, and gut the agencies of political biases and persecutions,” she tweeted.
Meanwhile Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, perhaps the most visible anti-Trump Republican, wrote on Twitter: “I have been ashamed to hear members of my party attacking the integrity of the FBI agents involved with the recent Mar-a-Lago search. These are sickening comments that put the lives of patriotic public servants at risk.”
The reaction comes after days of GOP demands for Garland to release the warrant and explain the rationale behind the search.
Garland on Thursday said authorities acted by the book — and he indicated that carrying out his duties required seeking the warrant.
“Faithful adherence to the rule of law is the bedrock principle of the Justice Department and of our democracy. Upholding the rule of law means applying the law evenly without fear or favor,” he said. “Under my watch, that is precisely what the Justice Department is doing.”
“The search warrant was authorized by a federal court upon the required finding of probable cause,” he said. A court filing from the Justice Department shows it was signed by a judge on Friday.
Included in the government’s new motion to unseal parts of the warrant is a request to also unseal a redacted inventory of what was taken by agents at Mar-a-Lago.
Prosecutors wrote that Trump “should have an opportunity to respond to this Motion and lodge objections, including with regards to any ‘legitimate privacy interests’ or the potential for other ‘injury’ if these materials are made public.”
The judge in the case later ordered the government to consult with Trump’s attorneys and report back by Friday afternoon as to whether the former president would issue any objections.
People close to Trump have been discussing the possibility of challenging the motion to unseal the warrant, according to sources familiar with his thinking.
Lawyers who are said to be representing him in this matter are not responding to requests for comment.
Democrats, meanwhile, are pushing for the warrant’s release, suggesting the Justice Department’s motion shows there was no wrongdoing in the search.
“A reminder: Trump could have released this paper at any time. He refused,” New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler tweeted. “And now DOJ wants you to see it. AG Garland seems to have nothing to hide.”
ABC News’ Katherine Faulders contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — As we approach the fall, there is a renewed push to get Americans vaccinated against COVID-19, particularly the elderly and the vulnerable, who continue to bear the brunt of the nation’s COVID-19 crisis.
Although over 61 million people, over the age of 50, are eligible to receive their second COVID-19 booster shot, just a third have actually done so, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Similarly, less than half of Americans, over the age of 5, who are eligible to receive their first booster have received their supplemental shot.
“One of the key messages coming out of this moment is: If you are 50 or over and you have not gotten a shot this year … it is absolutely critical that you go out and get one now,” White House COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz, last month.
Although the immunity provided by vaccines continues to wane with time, CDC data shows that COVID-19 booster doses are helping to significantly increase protection against severe forms of COVID-19 disease and death, particularly among older Americans.
Among people ages 50 years and older, the unvaccinated had a risk of dying from COVID-19 that was 29 times higher than their fully vaccinated and double-boosted peers.
In April, risk of death was 42 times higher among the unvaccinated. Despite the fact that there has been a decline in vaccine efficacy, data shows that the shots are still largely helping protect against severe disease.
Among people ages 50 years and older, vaccinated people with one booster dose had a risk of dying from COVID-19 that was 4 times higher than those fully vaccinated and double boosted.
Older Americans — particularly those over 70 — are being hospitalized at a significantly higher rate than all other age groups. Comparatively, people 70 and over, in the U.S., are entering the hospital 10.5 times more often than people ages 18 to 29.
On average, about 6,100 virus-positive Americans are now entering the hospital each day. There are currently about 43,000 virus-positive patients hospitalized across the country.
The overall number of patients hospitalized has also been at a plateau for several weeks. However, numbers remain significantly lower than at the nation’s peak, when there were more than 160,000 patients hospitalized with the virus.
In addition, although death totals also remain much lower than during other parts of the pandemic, hundreds of Americans are still dying from COVID-19 every day.
On average, nearly 400 American deaths to COVID-19 are reported each day, and over the last seven days, the U.S. has reported more than 2,700 deaths, according to the CDC.
