People over 75, front-line essential workers should get vaccine next, CDC panel says

A new CDC report found that children were more likely to get COVID-19 at a social gathering without masks or distancing than at school.

The CDC said the study found that children and adolescents with COVID-19 "were more likely than were similarly aged participants who had negative test results to have had reported close contact with a person with confirmed COVID-19 and less likely to have had reported consistent mask use by students and staff members inside the school facility."

ABC News’ Sony Salzman and Adjoa Smalls-Mantey contributed to this report.

The U.S. has recorded nearly 2.9 million cases in the first two weeks of December and is on track to become the worst month on record for COVID-19 cases, according to ABC News’ analysis of data compiled by the COVID Tracking Project.

Hospitalizations have surged to unprecedented levels, with over 110,000 patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 across the country -- a record high for the ninth consecutive day.

Nearly 40,000 people are currently hospitalized in the South, which has surpassed the surge from the summer.
 
ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos contributed to this report.

The FDA has authorized the first at-home COVID-19 test that doesn't require a prescription and provides results within 20 minutes.

The Ellume COVID-19 Home Test is an antigen test that detects fragments of proteins from the SARS-CoV-2 virus on a nasal swab and then reports results to your phone.   

“Today’s authorization is a major milestone in diagnostic testing for COVID-19,” FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn said in a statement. “By authorizing a test for over-the-counter use, the FDA allows it to be sold in places like drug stores, where a patient can buy it, swab their nose, run the test and find out their results in as little as 20 minutes.” 

The test "correctly identified 96% of positive samples and 100% of negative samples in individuals with symptoms," the FDA said. "In people without symptoms, the test correctly identified 91% of positive samples and 96% of negative samples."

The company says it will deliver 20 million at-home tests, which are manufactured in Australia, to the U.S. in the first half of 2021.

ABC News’ Stephanie Ebbs contributed to this report.

Nurses in some hard-hit Southern California communities are planning a strike in response to alleged conditions including: “aggressive rationing” of personal protective equipment and dirty PPE, insufficient testing for staff and patients, full shifts without a break, and not enough housekeepers, leading to poor sanitation.

The 10-day strike, set to begin Christmas Eve, will take place at Los Robles Regional Medical Center, Riverside Community Hospital and West Hills Hospital & Medical Center.

These hospitals are in Riverside, Los Angeles and Ventura counties -- all hard-hit by the pandemic.

Riverside County’s intensive care unit capacity fell to almost 0% on Monday, the Palm Springs Desert Sun reported. Overall, the Southern California region’s ICU capacity stood at 1.7% on Tuesday.