A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now infected more than 75.5 million people worldwide and killed over 1.6 million of them, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Here's how the news is developing today. All times Eastern.
Dec 19, 2020, 12:30 AM EST
Health care workers experience reactions to COVID vaccine
Advocate Aurora Health, a health care system in Wisconsin and Illinois, said Friday that four members of their team at Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, Illinois, “experienced reactions” after getting Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine.
They are now temporarily pausing their vaccination program as they treat the team members and investigate why they experienced negative reactions.
"Since Thursday, four team members at Advocate Condell Medical Center experienced reactions shortly after vaccination with symptoms including tingling and elevated heartrate," they said in a statement. "These four team members represent fewer than 0.15% of the approximately 3,000 who have so far received vaccinations across Advocate Aurora Health. At this time, we can share three team members are home and doing well, and one is receiving additional treatment."
They explained that reactions are an expected side effect of vaccination, and they still encourage others to get vaccinated to put an end to the coronavirus pandemic.
Dec 18, 2020, 9:20 PM EST
Current hospitalizations set new record in US
There are a record 114,751 people currently hospitalized with COVID-19 in the U.S., according to The COVID Tracking Project.
Nevada and Arizona have the highest hospitalizations per million people in the country, it said.
Per capita cases are also growing "at an alarming rate" in Arizona, it said, with currently 1,049 new COVID-19 cases per million people.
There were 228,825 new cases and 2,751 additional deaths reported nationwide on Friday.
Dec 18, 2020, 8:05 PM EST
FDA authorizes Moderna vaccine
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized a second COVID-19 vaccine Friday night, saying the data provide "clear evidence" that Moderna's vaccine works.
The FDA authorized Moderna's vaccine for people ages 18 and over.
Nearly 6 million doses of the vaccine will start to ship next week to hospitals and nursing homes.
The emergency use authorization comes after federal advisers agreed overwhelmingly on Thursday that the benefits of the Moderna vaccine outweighed any potential risks based on trial data.
The FDA authorized Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine last Friday.
People will not necessarily be given a choice between the two vaccines, both of which have proved highly effective in trials.
-ABC News' Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.
Dec 18, 2020, 3:18 PM EST
2nd federal prisoner scheduled to be executed in January tests positive
A second federal prisoner scheduled to be executed has tested positive for COVID-19.
Corey Johnson was set to be put to death on Jan 14.
"Not surprisingly, given the growing outbreak on federal death row, Corey Johnson also has now tested positive for COVID-19," Johnson's attorneys, Donald Salzman and Ronald Tabak, said in a statement. "The government must stop conducting executions during a COVID-19 outbreak in the facility, and we have called on the Department of Justice to withdraw Mr. Johnson’s execution date."
“Mr. Johnson’s diagnosis will substantially interfere with his attorneys’ ability to have meaningful contact with him during these critical days before his scheduled execution, and the widespread outbreak on the federal death row only confirms the reckless disregard for the lives and safety of staff, prisoners and attorneys alike," the lawyers continued. "If the government will not withdraw the execution date, we will ask the courts to intervene.”
Johnson was convicted of killing seven people "in furtherance of his drug-trafficking activities," according to the Justice Department.
The U.S. federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, is seen in this file photo taken on Aug. 28, 2020.
Michael Conroy/AP
On Thursday, ABC News learned that another inmate set to be executed in January, Dustin Higgs, was diagnosed with COVID-19, according to one of Higgs' lawyers, Shawn Nolan.
Higgs was scheduled to be executed on Jan. 15.
"This is surely the result of the super spreader executions that the government has rushed to undertake in the heart of a global pandemic," Nolan told ABC News in a statement Thursday evening. "Following the two executions that took place last week and one other two weeks prior, the COVID numbers at the federal prison in Terre Haute spiked enormously. Now our client is sick. We have asked the government to withdraw the execution date and we will ask the courts to intervene if they do not."
Higgs was convicted of ordering the 1996 murders of three women -- Tamika Black, 19, Mishann Chinn, 23, and Tanji Jackson, 21 -- at a national wildlife center near Beltsville, Maryland. Prosecutors allege Higgs and two friends kidnapped the three women after Higgs became enraged because one of them rebuffed his advances at a party earlier that night.
There are 222 inmates at Terre Haute who have tested positive for COVID-19. The Bureau of Prisons said on Thursday night that there were some inmates who have tested positive on death row, but did not go into detail.
A spokesperson said, "While a number of inmates have tested positive for COVID-19 at USP Terre Haute in recent weeks, many of these inmates are asymptomatic or exhibiting mild symptoms. Our highest priority remains ensuring the safety of staff and inmates."
