(NEW YORK) — The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.

More than 615,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 and over 4.2 million people have died worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

Just 58.4% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC last week, citing new science on the transmissibility of the delta variant, changed its mask guidance to now recommend everyone in areas with substantial or high levels of transmission — vaccinated or not — wear a face covering in public, indoor settings.

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

Aug 08, 8:36 pm
Court rules cruise vaccine mandate does not violate Florida law

A federal judge ruled Sunday in favor of Norwegian Cruise Line and will allow the company to require proof of vaccination on cruises out of Florida despite a state law that bans cruise ships from enacting such an order.

Norwegian sued the state last month contending that the law prevented them “from safely and soundly resuming passenger cruise operations from Miami, Florida.”

Florida’s law threatens to fine companies $5,000 each time they ask a customer to provide proof that they’ve been vaccinated.

Florida has seen a surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in the last couple of weeks, with most cases affecting unvaccinated residents.

Judge Kathleen M. Williams wrote in her decision that Norwegian “has demonstrated that public health will be jeopardized if it is required to suspend its vaccination requirement,” and the Florida Department of Health, “identifies no public benefit from the continued enforcement of the Statute Case.”

Neither the cruise line nor the Florida Department of Health issued immediate statements about the ruling as of Sunday evening.

Aug 08, 7:04 pm
Memphis school delays first day of school due to COVID cases

A Memphis area elementary school sent a message to parents Sunday, just hours before the new school year was about to begin, informing them that the first day of classes would be postponed for a week due to COVID-19 cases among the staff.

The letter from Donelson Elementary School administrators didn’t specify how many staff members contracted the virus but indicated they “are simply at a point where opening tomorrow would risk further exposure to students and staff.”

The first day of classes is tentatively rescheduled for Aug. 16, the letter said.

Aug 08, 3:50 pm
Austin hospitals down to 6 ICU beds

Hospitals in Austin, Texas are down to just six available intensive care unit beds as more COVID-19 patients are admitted, officials warned.

City officials said there are 591 COVID-19 patients that are hospitalized. The seven-day average of new coronavirus ICU admissions in Austin’s hospitals has jumped from 23.4 on July 4 to 184 on Aug. 6, the city’s health department data showed.

Over the weekend, the Warn Central Texas system sent out an alert to residents via text message that urged people to wear a mask, get vaccinated and stay home if possible.

Aug 08, 2:44 pm
WHO warns of phony COVID lottery scam

The World Health Organization issued a warning Sunday about online scams involving a phony COVID-19 lottery.

The scammers claim to be a financial management firm in London under the name “Capital Finance, Inc. London,” WHO said.

The fraudsters allege through emails that the “COVID-19 Lottery Compensation Prize” is brought to you by WHO, in association with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), according to WHO.

The emails also state that they come from a group appointed by the WHO to process payment of these prizes, and then solicit personal details and in some cases, money from their victims, WHO warned.

“WHO is not offering or conducting a lottery prize to compensate individuals, whose names or contact details are purportedly selected at random, for the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the UN agency said in a statement.

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(NEW YORK) — Red flag warnings are persisting across parts of the West as dozens of large wildfires continue to scorch through homes and dry earth.

A cold front bringing gusty winds and the possibility of thunderstorms is expected to pass through parts of southern Montana and southern Wyoming Sunday afternoon. Wind gusts are expected to reach up to 50 mph in some regions, while humidity will remain low — at just 12% to 18%, according to forecasts.

The Dixie Fire, now the second-largest fire in California history after it has been burning near the Feather River Canyon since July 13, had singed through more than 463,000 acres by Sunday morning and was just 21% contained.

Firefighters had previously made progress on containing the Dixie Fire, but the fire re-exploded after jumping containment lines last week amid dangerous fire conditions. It has now destroyed 404 buildings as well as 185 other minor structures, damaged 27 structures and is continuing to threaten 13,871 structures.

Well over 100 home sand businesses in the downtown area of Greenville, California, about 150 miles northeast of Sacramento were decimated after dry, gusty conditions fueled the flames even further on Wednesday night.

Four people in the vicinity of the Dixie Fire are missing, the Plumas County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Saturday. Four firefighters were injured Saturday night while battling the Dixie Fire after a tree branch fell and hit them, according to officials.

The River Fire, near Colfax, California, is now 56% contained after its explosion last week prompted evacuations.

The McFarland Fire in Wildwood, California, just north of the Mendocino National Forest, has blazed through more than 30,000 acres and is 21% contained.

Six firefighters were injured on Friday while battling the McFarland Fire in Shasta Trinity National Forest. The heat was so intense that some suffered from first and second-degree burns, officials said.

Places around the world like the Western U.S. have become a “tinderbox ready to burn with any spark,” Kristina Dahl, senior climate scientist for the Union of Concerned Scientists, told George Stephanopoulos on “This Week” Sunday.

“Around the world what we’re seeing is that very hot conditions tend to worsen any drought conditions that places might be experiencing,” Dahl said. “So you end up with severe drought, coupled out with the drying out of vegetation, and that vegetation then becomes fuel for fires to burn.”

Michael Mann, director of Penn State’s Earth System Science Center, told Stephanopoulos that “dangerous” climate change has already arrived.

“We can see the impacts of climate change playing out now in real time on our television screens and in our newspaper headlines,” Mann said. “…at this point it’s a question of how bad we’re willing to let it get.”

The effects of the fires are also being experienced up to 1,000 miles away as the smoke from the fires travels east with the jet stream. Air quality alerts have been issued for nine states.

On Saturday afternoon, Denver had the worst quality ranking in the world, according to IQ Air, a data tool that measures and ranks air quality in cities around the world. Denver remained in the second spot on Sunday afternoon.

Air quality was also dangerous in Utah near Salt Lake City, prompting the National Weather Service to warn residents to remain indoors as much as possible.

8/6 – Smoke concentrations will become very noticeable as the day goes on today. Unhealthy air is expected. What will this mean for you? Avoid/reduce prolonged or heavy exertion. Move activities indoors or reschedule to a time when the air quality is better. #UTwx pic.twitter.com/QldLAhmrHC

— NWS Salt Lake City (@NWSSaltLakeCity) August 6, 2021

Closer to the fires, white ash from the Dixie Fire was falling in the Lake Tahoe Basin, SF Gate reported.

Residents in Sacramento reported seeing hazy skies as a result of the smoke as the weekend rolled in, The Sacramento Bee reported.

Air quality alerts have also been issued in Southern California. The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District a health alert Saturday stating that the changing weather pattern would affect air quality in the area through Monday afternoon.

Experts advised residents in the Bay Area that they could expect smoky skies and bad air quality for decades to come.

“I think residents of the Western US are just going to have to get used to smoky skies and bad air quality as we go through the next few decades,” Craig Clements, director of San Jose State University’s Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center, told ABC San Francisco station KGO. “These fires are burning hotter, they’re burning more intensely and so, they are creating a lot of smoke and it could really impact communities. So, we have to get used to that unfortunately.”

ABC News’ Brittany Borer and Jenna Harrison contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins said Sunday he believes vaccine requirements could make a difference in slowing the rapid spread of COVID-19 and acknowledged how politics has polarized public opinion on pandemic mitigation strategies.

“Why is it that a mandate about a vaccine or wearing a mask suddenly becomes a statement of your political party? We never should have let that happen.” Collins told ABC “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos.

“Come on, America — we’re incredibly polarized about politics, we don’t really need to be polarized about a virus that’s killing people,” Collins continued. “We ought to be doing everything we can to save lives.”

.@gstephanopoulos: “Is it time for more vaccine mandates?”@NIHDirector Dr. Francis Collins: “Yeah, I think we ought to use every public health tool that we can when people are dying.” https://t.co/OFn9QFfihK pic.twitter.com/d7ajJA2nxC

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) August 8, 2021

Saturday marked the fourth consecutive day of more than 100,000 new daily COVID-19 cases in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And Friday, the U.S. recorded its highest daily COVID-19 case count in six months, with more than 120,000 new cases reported.

And though more than 50% of Americans are fully vaccinated and that rate increased by 25% in the last week, according to the CDC, due to the rapidly spreading delta variant, some states and counties have reimplemented mitigation strategies, such as mask mandates.

Collins at first did not give a direct answer on whether he believed more vaccine mandates should be implemented, initially saying he celebrates when businesses decide to require vaccinations for employees.

“As a person who runs the National Institutes of Health with 45,000 employees and contractors, I am glad to see the president insisting that we go forward requiring vaccinations or if people are unwilling to do that, then regular testing, at least once or twice a week, which will be very inconvenient,” Collins said.

“I think we ought to use every public health tool we can when people are dying,” Collins added.

“That was about as close as a yes as you could get. You clearly believe that vaccine mandates could make a difference,” Stephanopoulos pressed.

“I do believe they should make a difference,” Collins responded. “I understand how that can sometimes set off all kinds of resistance. But isn’t that a shame?”

.@GStephanopoulos asks @NIHDirector his best advice for parents.

“Think about masks in the way that they ought to be thought about: this is not a political statement or an invasion of your liberties. This is a lifesaving medical device.” https://t.co/KfLFZu3Wd8 pic.twitter.com/G6BtGJxemH

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) August 8, 2021

If more people had gotten vaccinated when vaccines became widely available, the current surge fueled by the delta variant could have been mitigated, Collins said earlier in the interview, responding to a USA TODAY front page headline: “We are failing one another.”

“I’m afraid we should not really have ever gotten in the place we are,” Collins said. “In that regard, yes, we are failing. … Now we’re paying the terrible price.”

As more children are currently hospitalized than at any other point in the pandemic, Stephanopoulos asked Collins whether the delta variant is more serious for children.

“We don’t have rigorous data to show for sure,” Collins responded. “But this is a virus that is not only more contagious, but potentially more lethal.”

With the school year set to begin across the nation, Collins said he would ask parents to think about masks as a “life-saving medical device” and ask their children to wear them.

“We know that kids under 12 are likely to get infected and if we don’t have masks in schools, this virus will spread more widely,” Collins told Stephanopoulos. “It will probably result in outbreaks in schools and kids will have to go back to remote learning which is the one thing we really want to prevent.”

“It’s a small price to pay for being able to keep kids where they need to be to learn,” Collins added.

.@GStephanopoulos asks @NIHDirector his best advice for parents.

“Think about masks in the way that they ought to be thought about: this is not a political statement or an invasion of your liberties. This is a lifesaving medical device.” https://t.co/KfLFZu3Wd8 pic.twitter.com/G6BtGJxemH

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) August 8, 2021

While the current vaccines have high efficacy in stopping the spread of the highly contagious delta variant, Collins said he worries about “the day when a variant arises that is so different from the original Wuhan virus” that it evades the current vaccines and requires the quick development of a booster shot.

“The best way to prevent that from happening is to reduce the number of infections because that’s how mutants happen. It’s because people are infected with the virus and it copies itself slightly wrong and then you get something that’s even worse,” Collins said.

.@NIHDirector tells @GStephanopoulos that health officials “don’t have anxieties yet” about vaccines not protecting against other COVID-19 variants.

“The best way to prevent that from happening is to reduce the number of infections.” https://t.co/KfLFZu3Wd8 pic.twitter.com/YjfrQldu0Q

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) August 8, 2021

As the country awaits the Food and Drug Administration’s full approval of the COVID-19 vaccines, Collins said he has been in close contact with the agency and they hope to issue full authorization within the next month.

“But meanwhile, while people are waiting for that — and I understand that would help — please be clear about this, the vaccines have incredible evidence for their safety and effectiveness. They work against delta. They will save your life,” Collins said.

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(NEW YORK) — This weekend, some of Florida’s largest school districts have moved to require masks for students, the latest in a weeklong saga that began when Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order aimed at preventing districts from mandating face coverings for kids.

However, the mandates — issued by districts including Hillsborough (Tampa), Orange (Orlando), and Palm Beach — come with a catch: parents are allowed to opt their children out of them, without providing a reason.

Giving the choice to opt out complies with an emergency rule issued Saturday by the Florida Department of Health, which told districts they must give parents the option.

The state’s biggest school district, Miami-Dade, has not announced whether it will mandate face coverings for students. Its latest protocols, issued July 29, require them on school buses but not inside school buildings.

Broward Public Schools, the state’s second-largest district, has not updated its guidance from Wednesday, which said masks are required for students. The guidance did not mention the choice of opting out.

Some large school districts, like Polk, Pinellas, and Lee, are making masks optional for students, according to their most updated guidance.

Florida reported 23,903 COVID-19 cases in a single day on Friday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, making it the state’s third straight day with over 20,000 new COVID cases.

As of Saturday, according to the Florida Hospital Association, there are 13,348 people hospitalized across the state — the highest figure the state has had during the pandemic. Nearly 30% of inpatients have COVID and 43.3% of adult intensive care unit patients have COVID.

Currently, one out of five new COVID infections are in Florida.

Below are the current mask policies for the 10 largest school districts in Florida, with links to the most recent guidance:

– Miami-Dade: optional
– Broward: required, with no opt-out option
– Hillsborough: required, with an opt-out option
– Orange: required for the first 30 days, with an opt-out option
– Palm Beach: required, with an opt-out option
– Duval: required, with an opt-out option
– Polk: optional
– Pinellas: optional
– Lee: optional
-Pasco: optional

ABC News’ Joshua Hoyos contributed to this report.

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