COVID-19 infections in the U.S. are on the rise.

During a virtual meeting of the White House COVID-19 Response Team, Centers for Disease Control Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky say the seven-day rolling for COVID-19 infection is 92,000. That's an increase of about 18% from the week prior.

"Infections among the unvaccinated continue to drive this pandemic," Dr. Walenksy said.

The uptick comes as millions of Americans gather for the holidays. Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Walensky reiterated, however, that vaccinated Americans should feel comfortable being around their loved ones this year.

"We certainly want families to gather and we certainly don't want these issues to create wedges in families," Dr. Walensky said.

On Friday, the U.S. expanded eligibility to booster shots for all Americans. Adults 18 and over can now get a Moderna or Pfizer booster shot six months after their first series. Adults can also get the Johnson & Johnson booster two months after receiving their first dose.

"Not only do boosters work, they work even better than the peak dose, the peak response after the second dose," Dr. Fauci said.

Fauci added that they don't have the data yet to show when Americans may need a fourth shot. He said he's hopeful that will remain highly effective for longer than the first two shots.

With holidays approaching, health experts said some festivities can start to return to a sense of normalcy — but they also warned that COVID-19 isn't defeated yet.

Experts said Sunday that outdoor trick-or-treating — particularly for children who are vaccinated — should be fine this year.

"It's a good time to reflect on why it's important to get vaccinated. But go out there and enjoy Halloween as well as the other holidays that will be coming up," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN Sunday.

Dr. Megan Ranney, associate dean of the School of Public Health at Brown University, cautioned against indoor Halloween parties for children too young to be vaccinated and encouraged parents in areas with high virus transmission to mask their children, but agreed that Halloween fun could go on this year.

The big picture for COVID-19 in the U.S. is looking a little brighter as new infections and hospitalizations decline. The average rate of daily new cases has dropped below 100,000, to 93,814 as of Sunday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Fauci said he would like to see new daily cases well below 10,000, but the decline is a start. "Hopefully it's going to continue to go in that trajectory downward," he said.

While conditions are improving and the sense of normalcy is expanding, Fauci warned that the fight against the pandemic is not over.

"We have to just be careful that we don't prematurely declare victory in many respects. We still have around 68 million people who are eligible to be vaccinated that have not yet gotten vaccinated," Fauci said.

About 56.4% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Although experts don't know the exact percentage of vaccination coverage needed to control the spread of the virus, Fauci has said the "vast majority" of the population will need to get vaccinated.

"We're not there yet," Dr. William Schaffner, a professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said. "This virus can continue in those places where vaccination rates are low."

The potential for spread is especially concerning as winter holidays — often accompanied by gatherings and travel — approach.

Health experts have promoted vaccination requirements for air travel this holiday season; and while Fauci declined to offer his stance on the matter Sunday, Professor of Emergency Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University Dr. Esther Choo weighed in.

"Now is the time for mandates for airlines," Choo said. "It should happen quickly because people are making plans right now for our fall and winter holidays."

Death isn't the only terrible outcome with COVID-19

It's important for people to understand "not dying from COVID is a great thing, but that isn't the only metric we should be using," Michigan emergency room physician Dr. Rob Davidson said Saturday.

He said at his hospital, some COVID-19 patients have been on a ventilator for more than a month, and some have endured invasive procedures to stay alive.

Even if they recover physically, some COVID-19 survivors end up suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, due to time spent in the ICU, Davidson said.

A study published in February found 30% of COVID-19 survivors experienced PTSD, which is a psychological illness that usually occurs after someone has a life-threatening experience.

The virus can also have negative effects on pregnant people infected during their third trimester and their babies, research shows.

Between March and September of last year, symptomatic pregnant people at one Israeli hospital had higher rates of gestational diabetes, a lower white blood cell count, and experienced heavier bleeding during their delivery. Their babies also experienced more breathing problems, a research team reported in the Journal of Maternal-Fetal and Neonatal Medicine.

The study has limitations since it only looked at women in one hospital, so its findings may not be true for all people who are pregnant.

Then there is long COVID-19 — when symptoms can last months after infection.

A large study published last month showed more than one-third of COVID-19 patients suffered symptoms three to six months after getting infected. Some had multiple, long-lasting complications.

Breathing problems, abdominal symptoms such as abdominal pain, diarrhea, fatigue, pain, anxiety and depression were among the most common issues reported.

Accompanying data showed as many as 46% of children and young adults between the ages of 10 and 22 had experienced at least one symptom in the six months after recovering.

Vaccines for kids under 5 may not come until next year

The Food and Drug Administration is considering a proposal to expand vaccines to children as young as 5, and those younger may not have a dose authorized for them until early next year, former FDA commissioner, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, said Sunday.

The FDA is likely to ask for more data and perhaps for studies involving more children, because it is a new vaccine and a new virus, Gottlieb told CBS.

"And that could push it into 2022. Previously we had talked about trying to have that data available before the end of this year, which could have prompted an authorization perhaps by the end of the year, at least in kids ages 2-4. I think that it's more likely that it slips into the first quarter of next year at the very least, but not too far into next year," said Gottlieb, who is also on Pfizer's board.

The FDA has called a meeting of its independent vaccine advisers, the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC), for Oct. 26 to discuss pediatric vaccines. Pfizer has submitted data and a formal request for authorization for its one-third dose vaccine for use in children 5-11. But Gottlieb said he expects VRBPAC to also discuss what might be needed for authorization for the youngest children.

Having more information to consider can raise public confidence in the vaccines, Gottlieb said. He is already confident and plans to vaccinate his own young daughters.

"There's a lot of parents like me that, as soon as the vaccines available for their children, are going to go out and get their kids vaccinated, that see the benefits of vaccination," he said. "There's a lot of parents who still have a lot of questions around vaccination. I think for them, they should have a conversation with their pediatrician to try to get comfortable with the idea of vaccinating kids."

Gottlieb said he thinks it will be years before the CDC recommends making COVID-19 vaccines part of the regular childhood vaccination schedule, which would open the door to school districts mandating them.

"I think it's a very long way off. Certainly, CDC's going to look at children ages 12-17 differently than 5-11," he said.

SEOUL, South Korea —

South Korea had seemed to be winning the fight against the coronavirus: Quickly ramping up its testing, contact-tracing and quarantine efforts paid off when it weathered an early outbreak without the economic pain of a lockdown. But a deadly resurgence has reached new heights during Christmas week, prompting soul-searching on how the nation sleepwalked into a crisis.

The 1,241 infections on Christmas Day were the largest daily increase. Another 1,132 cases were reported Saturday, bringing South Korea's caseload to 55,902.

Over 15,000 were added in the last 15 days alone. An additional 221 fatalities over the same period, the deadliest stretch, took the death toll to 793.

As the numbers keep rising, the shock to people's livelihoods is deepening and public confidence in the government eroding. Officials could decide to increase social distancing measures to maximum levels on Sunday, after resisting for weeks.

Tighter restrictions could be inevitable because transmissions have been outpacing efforts to expand hospital capacities.

In the greater Seoul area, more facilities have been designated for COVID-19 treatment and dozens of general hospitals have been ordered to allocate more ICUs for virus patients. Hundreds of troops have been deployed to help with contract tracing.

Related video: Hospitals packed as California nears 2 million virus cases

At least four patients have died at their homes or long-term care facilities while waiting for admission this month, said Kwak Jin, an official at the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. The agency said 299 among 16,577 active patients were in serious or critical condition.

“Our hospital system isn’t going to collapse, but the crush in COVID-19 patients has significantly hampered our response,” said Choi Won Suk, an infectious disease professor at the Korea University Ansan Hospital, west of Seoul.

Choi said the government should have done more to prepare hospitals for a winter surge.

“We have patients with all kinds of serious illnesses at our ICUs and they can’t share any space with COVID-19 patients, so it’s hard,” Choi said. “It’s the same medical staff that has been fighting the virus for all these months. There’s an accumulation of fatigue.”

Critics say the government of President Moon Jae-in became complacent after swiftly containing the outbreak this spring that was centered in the southeastern city of Daegu.

The past weeks have underscored risks of putting economic concerns before public health when vaccines are at least months away. Officials had eased social distancing rules to their lowest in October, allowing high-risk venues like clubs and karaoke rooms to reopen, although experts were warning of a viral surge during winter when people spend longer hours indoors.

Jaehun Jung, a professor of preventive medicine at the Gachon University College of Medicine in Incheon, said he anticipates infections to gradually slow over the next two weeks.

The quiet streets and long lines snaking around testing stations in Seoul, which are temporarily providing free tests to anyone regardless of whether they have symptoms or clear reasons to suspect infections, demonstrate a return of public alertness following months of pandemic fatigue.

Officials are also clamping down on private social gatherings through Jan. 3, shutting down ski resorts, prohibiting hotels from selling more than half of their rooms and setting fines for restaurants if they accept groups of five or more people.

Still, lowering transmissions to the levels seen in early November — 100 to 200 a day — would be unrealistic, Jung said, anticipating the daily figure to settle around 300 to 500 cases.

The higher baseline might necessitate tightened social distancing until vaccines roll out — a dreadful outlook for low-income workers and the self-employed who drive the country’s service sector, the part of the economy the virus has damaged the most.

“The government should do whatever to secure enough supplies and move up the administration of vaccines to the earliest possible point,” Jung said.

South Korea plans to secure around 86 million doses of vaccines next year, which would be enough to cover 46 million people in a population of 51 million. The first supplies, which will be AstraZeneca vaccines produced by a local manufacturing partner, are expected to be delivered in February and March. Officials plan to complete vaccinating 60% to 70% of the population by around November.

There’s disappointment the shots aren’t coming sooner, though officials have insisted South Korea could afford a wait-and-see approach as its outbreak isn’t as dire as in America or Europe.

South Korea's earlier success could be attributed to its experience in fighting a 2015 outbreak of MERS, the Middle East respiratory syndrome, caused by a different coronavirus.

After South Korea reported its first COVID-19 patient on Jan. 20, the KDCA was quick to recognize the importance of mass testing and sped up an approval process that had private companies producing millions of tests in just weeks.

When infections soared in the Daegu region in February and March, health authorities managed to contain the situation by April after aggressively mobilizing technological tools to trace contacts and enforce quarantines.

But that success was also a product of luck — most infections in Daegu were linked to a single church congregation. Health workers now are having a much harder time tracking transmissions in the populous capital area, where clusters are popping up just about everywhere.

South Korea has so far weathered its outbreak without lockdowns, but a decision on Sunday to raise distancing restrictions to the highest “Tier-3” could possibly shutter hundreds of thousands of non-essential businesses across the nation.

That could be for the best, said Yoo Eun-sun, who is struggling to pay rent for three small music tutoring academies she runs in Incheon and Siheung, also near Seoul, amid a dearth of students and on-and-off shutdowns.

“What parents would send their kids to piano lessons" unless transmissions decrease quickly and decisively, she said.

Yoo also feels that the government’s middling approach to social distancing, which has targeted specific business activities while keeping the broader part of the economy open, has put an unfair financial burden on businesses like hers.

“Whether it’s tutoring academies, gyms, yoga studies or karaokes, the same set of businesses are getting hit again and again,” she said. “How long could we go on?"

President Joe Biden will receive his COVID-19 booster shot on Monday, days after federal regulators recommended a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine for Americans age 65 or older and approved them for others with preexisting medical conditions and high-risk work environments.

The White House said Biden, 78, would deliver remarks and receive the additional dose at 1 p.m. Monday.

Biden got his first shot on Dec. 21 and his second dose three weeks later, on Jan. 11, along with his wife, Jill Biden. It was not immediately clear whether the first lady, who's 70, would also receive the booster dose on Monday.

Speaking on Friday after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration authorized the Pfizer booster, Biden told reporters, "I’ll be getting my booster shot. It’s hard to acknowledge I’m over 65, but I’ll be getting my booster shot."

Biden emerged as a champion of booster doses this summer, as the U.S. experienced a sharp rise in coronavirus cases from the more transmissible delta variant. While the vast majority of cases continue to occur among unvaccinated people, regulators pointed to evidence from Israel and early studies in the U.S. showing that protection against so-called breakthrough cases was vastly improved by a third dose of the Pfizer shot.

But the aggressive American push for boosters, before many poorer nations have been able to provide even a modicum of protection for their most vulnerable populations, has drawn the ire of the World Health Organization and some aid groups, which have called on the U.S. to pause third shots to free up supply for the global vaccination effort.

Biden said last week that the U.S. was purchasing another 500 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine — for a total of 1 billion over the coming year — to donate to less well off nations.

Vice President Kamala Harris, 56, received the Moderna vaccine, for which federal regulators have not yet authorized boosters — but they are expected to in the coming weeks. Regulators are also expecting data about the safety and efficacy of a booster for the single-dose Johnson & Johnson shot soon.

The magnitude of COVID-19 patients filling hospital beds is avoidable, doctors say. But in some hospitals, patients with or without coronavirus are paying the price.

"We are at the point where not every patient in need will get the care we might wish we could give," said Dr. Shelly Harkins, chief medical officer of St. Peter's Health in Helena, Montana.

It's one of the latest hospitals to resort to crisis standards of care, meaning emergency medicine personnel must ration care.

In those situations, "people who come in in cardiac arrest may not get CPR, and patients who would otherwise get hospitalized may be sent home with loved ones who are going to be scared and not have full capacity to take care of them," said emergency physician Dr. Megan Ranney, associate dean of the School of Public Health at Brown University.

More than 89,300 people are hospitalized for COVID-19, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

And an average of 1,926 people have died from COVID-19 every day this past week, according to Johns Hopkins University. That's the highest rate since early March.

Vaccines are the best way to prevent COVID-19, but millions of teens and adults are not yet fully vaccinated, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

But there's "exciting news" for families eager to vaccinate their younger children.

Kids as young as 5 might be able to get vaccinated next month

Pfizer will soon ask the Food and Drug Administration to authorize its vaccine for children ages 5 to 11 after clinical trial data showed the vaccine is safe and generates "robust" antibody response among children in that age group, the company announced Monday.

If all goes well, the vaccine could be authorized for children ages 5 to 11 "probably by the end of October, perhaps it slips a little bit into November," former FDA commissioner and current Pfizer board member Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Monday.

That would mean another 28 million Americans would be able to get vaccinated, according to a CNN analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

And that would make 94% of all Americans eligible for vaccination.

"This is exciting news," emergency physician and CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen said Monday.

"So many parents are waiting for exactly this news, especially given what's happening now with the delta variant. There have been nearly half a million new cases in children in the last two weeks."

The Pfizer trial included 2,268 participants ages 5 to 11 and used a 10-microgram dose — smaller than the 30-microgram dose that has been used for those 12 and older.

"The 10 microgram dose was carefully selected as the preferred dose for safety, tolerability and immunogenicity in children 5 to 11 years of age," Pfizer said.

What to expect for booster doses

Advisers to the FDA on Friday recommended authorizing a booster dose of Pfizer's vaccine six months after full vaccination — but only for people 65 and older and for those at high risk of severe illness from the virus.

"The reason they made that decision is because of the FDA's judgement that the goal of vaccination is to prevent severe disease, hospitalization and death — and the only people for whom we've seen that two doses don't do that are the age 60 or 65 plus," Ranney said.

"For the rest of us, hold tight and stay tuned."

The CDC is meeting this week with its vaccine advisers, and the agency must give its approval before any booster doses can be officially administered.

The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said he believes a booster shot will likely be recommended for more Americans eventually.

"Data will continue to come in, and I believe you're going to see an evolution of this process as we go on in the next several weeks to months," Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday.

One evolution could be the evaluation of data for boosters from Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, which Fauci said might come within the next three weeks.

WASHINGTON —

President Joe Biden on Thursday is announcing sweeping new federal vaccine requirements affecting as many as 100 million Americans in an all-out effort to increase COVID-19 vaccinations and curb the surging delta variant that is killing thousands each week and jeopardizing the nation's economic recovery.

The expansive rules mandate that all employers with more than 100 workers require them to be vaccinated or test for the virus weekly, affecting about 80 million Americans. And the roughly 17 million workers at health facilities that receive federal Medicare or Medicaid also will have to be fully vaccinated.

Biden is also signing an executive order to require vaccination for employees of the executive branch and contractors who do business with the federal government — with no option to test out. That covers several million more workers.

Biden was to announce the new requirements in a Thursday afternoon address from the White House as part of a new "action plan" to address the latest rise in coronavirus cases and the stagnating pace of COVID-19 shots that has raised doubts among the public over his handling of the pandemic.

Just two months ago Biden prematurely declared the nation's "independence" from the virus. Now, despite more than 208 million Americans having at least one dose of the vaccines, the U.S. is seeing about 300% more new COVID-19 infections a day, about two-and-a-half times more hospitalizations, and nearly twice the number of deaths compared to the same time last year.

Biden's plans were previewed Thursday afternoon by White House press secretary Jen Psaki and other senior administration officials ahead of the speech.

After months of using promotions to drive the vaccination rate, Biden is taking a much firmer hand, as his aides blame people who have not yet received shots for the sharp rise in cases that is killing more than 1,000 people per day and imperiling a fragile economic rebound.

Psaki said Biden's "overarching objective here is to reduce the number of unvaccinated Americans," noting about 80 million adults remain unvaccinated.

An AP-NORC poll conducted in August found that 54% of Americans approved of Biden's stewardship of the public health crisis, down from 66% the month before, driven by a drop in support from Republicans and political independents.

In addition to the vaccination requirements, Biden is moving to double federal fines for airline passengers who refuse to wear masks on flights or to maintain face covering requirements on federal property in accordance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.

Biden was also to announce that the federal government will work to increase the supply of virus tests, and that the White House has secured concessions from retailers including Walmart, Amazon, and Kroger to sell at-home testing kits at cost beginning this week.

The administration is also to send additional federal support to assist schools in safely operating, including additional funding for testing. And Biden will call for large entertainment venues and arenas to require vaccinations or proof of a negative test for entry.

The requirement for large companies to mandate vaccinations or weekly testing for employees will be enacted through a forthcoming rule from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that carries penalties of $14,000 per violation, an administration official said. The White House did not immediately say when it would take effect, but said workers would have sufficient time to get vaccinated.

The rule would also require that large companies provide paid time off for vaccination.

Meanwhile, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will extend a vaccination requirement issued earlier this summer — for nursing home staff — to other healthcare settings including hospitals, home-health agencies and dialysis centers.

Separately, the Department of Health and Human Services will require vaccinations in Head Start Programs, as well as schools run by the Department of Defense and Bureau of Indian Education, affecting about 300,000 employees.

Biden's order for executive branch workers and contractors includes exceptions for workers seeking religious or medical exemptions from vaccination, according to Psaki. Federal workers and contractors will have 75 days to get fully vaccinated. Workers who don't comply will be referred to their agencies' human resources departments for counseling and discipline, to include potential termination.

"We would like to be a model" to other organizations and business around country, Psaki said of the federal workforce. The AP-NORC poll found 55% of Americans in favor of requiring government workers to be fully vaccinated, compared with 21% opposed.

Biden has encouraged COVID-19 vaccine requirements in settings like schools, workplaces and university campuses, and the White House hopes the strengthened federal mandate will inspire more businesses to follow suit. On Thursday, the Los Angeles Board of Education was expected to vote on requiring all students 12 and older to be fully vaccinated in the the nation's second-largest school district.

The Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Health and Human Services, the Indian Health Service, and the National Institutes of Health have previously announced vaccine requirements for much of their staffs, and the Pentagon moved last month to require all servicemembers to get vaccinated. Combined, the White House estimates those requirements cover 2.5 million Americans. Thursday's order is expected to impact nearly 2 million more federal workers and potentially millions of contractors.

More than 177 million are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, but confirmed cases of the virus have shot up in recent weeks to an average of about 140,000 per day with on average about 1,000 Americans dying from the virus daily, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Most of the spread — and the vast majority of severe illness and death — is occurring among those not yet fully vaccinated against the virus. So-called breakthrough infections in vaccinated people occur, but tend to be far less dangerous.

"We cannot accept this to be the new normal," said Dr. Leana Wen, a former Baltimore health commissioner who comments regularly on the pandemic. If the pandemic continues unabated, it will mean 500,000 deaths a year. "Surely no one wants that."

Wen has been urging the White House to take a stronger line on vaccine requirements, including the use of so-called vaccine "passports" for travel and workplace mandates that leave little wiggle room.

"I want to see the full power of the federal government here, and not more half measures," she said. "I want to see a hard reset from the Biden administration, not more nibbling around the edges."

Federal officials are moving ahead with plans to begin administering booster shots of the mRNA vaccines to bolster protection against the more transmissible delta variant of the virus. Last month Biden announced plans to make them available beginning on Sept. 20, but only the Pfizer vaccine will likely have received regulatory approval for a third dose by that time. Federal regulators are seeking additional data from Moderna that will likely delay its booster approval until October.

Officials are aiming to administer the booster shots about eight months after the second dose of the two-dose vaccines.

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Associated Press writer Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar contributed.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio strongly encouraged vaccinated people to wear masks indoors but stopped short of reissuing a mask mandate on Monday, spurning guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."We want to strongly recommend that people wear masks in indoor settings even if you're vaccinated," de Blasio said. "If you don't know the people around, if you're not sure if they're vaccinated or not, or if you know some are unvaccinated, it's absolutely crucial to wear a mask even if you are vaccinated."Still, he did not require masks in all indoor settings, a step that Washington D.C., Los Angeles County and some other large metro areas have taken. Already, New York City requires vaccinated people to wear masks on public transit, in hospitals and in schools.Last week, the CDC issued new guidance that fully vaccinated people should wear masks indoors when in areas of "substantial" or "high" COVID-19 transmission, a metric based on case rates and positivity rates in a county. All five boroughs in NYC are in areas of "substantial" or "high" transmission.De Blasio's decision not to reissue a mask mandate reflects the waning influence of the CDC at this point in the pandemic, when protective vaccines are widely available for everyone 12 and older.The CDC's new mask guidance was based on an outbreak of the delta variant among mostly vaccinated people in Provincetown, Massachusetts, in which five people were hospitalized and no one died. The vaccines, though not 100% effective, provide substantial protection against severe illness and death.In recent weeks, the mayor has emphasized the importance of vaccinating as many people as possible and downplayed the use of masks, saying vaccines are "the whole ball game.""Masks can be helpful, we are going to delineate to New Yorkers the best way to use masks, but they don't change the basic reality. Vaccination does," he told CNN on Friday.About 55% of all NYC residents are fully vaccinated, according to city data, a number higher than the total U.S. rate of about 50%. The rate differs by borough, however: about two-thirds of Manhattan residents are fully vaccinated, while only 46% of Bronx residents can say the same.Mayor de Blasio said Monday the city still plans to focus its efforts on raising vaccination rates. "Everything we do is vaccine-centric," de Blasio said.The city has offered both carrots and sticks to encourage vaccinations. Any resident who gets a first dose of the vaccine at a city-run vaccination site will get $100. At the same time, all unvaccinated city employees will be required to start weekly testing on Sept. 13.The mayor also announced Monday that every new employee for the city of New York will be required to prove they are vaccinated before they can begin work.

While most American adults have been vaccinated, people in some states are still hesitant to get their shots.

In Missouri, hospital space is now a concern as COVID-19 cases go up.

"Should we start to see a high number of COVID patients like they are there, we're going to be very challenged with how many beds that we have available," Steve Hoeger of the MARC Health Care Coalition said.

A Springfield, Missouri, hospital has opened its sixth COVID-19 ward as the delta virus variant rages in the state's southwest region.

Chief Administrative Officer Erik Frederick says the hospital needed at most five virus wards last year. Frederick has tweeted that many people in local rural areas are unvaccinated.

He also says people from rural areas don't have nearby hospitals, so they come to Mercy Hospital in Springfield.

About 56% of adults in Missouri have gotten at least one vaccine shot. That vaccination rate is about 12 points lower than the national rate.

Simon Kaufman and Alex Livingston contributed to this report.

A Canadian advisory committee says Canadians who got the AstraZeneca shot for their first vaccine dose should not get the second one.

It says they should get the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine for their second shot instead.

The vice-chair of the board says new evidence suggests responses are better when the AstraZeneca vaccine is followed by an mRNA vaccine and said the new guidance also takes into account the marginal risk of blood clots associated with AstraZeneca.

However, she said anyone who got two shots of AstraZeneca can feel confident they are protected.

This story originally reported by Simon Kaufman and Jay Strubberg on Newsy.com

Once dismissed by most public health experts and government officials, the hypothesis that COVID-19 leaked accidentally from a Chinese lab is now receiving scrutiny under a new U.S. investigation.

Experts say the 90-day review ordered on May 26 by President Joe Biden will push American intelligence agencies to collect more information and review what they already have. Former State Department officials under President Donald Trump have publicly pushed for further investigation into virus origins, as have scientists and the World Health Organization.

Many scientists, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, say they still believe the virus most likely occurred in nature and jumped from animals to humans. Virus researchers have not publicly identified any key new scientific evidence that might make the lab-leak hypothesis more likely.

Virologists also say it is unlikely that any definitive answer about virus origins will be possible in 90 days. The work to fully confirm origins and pathways of past viruses — such as the first SARS or HIV/AIDS — has taken years or decades.

A look at what is known about the U.S. investigation of the virus.

What are intelligence agencies reviewing?

Biden ordered a review of what the White House said was an initial finding leading to "two likely scenarios," an animal-to-human transmission or a lab leak. The White House statement says two agencies in the 18-member intelligence community lean toward the hypothesis of a transmission in nature; another agency leans toward a lab leak.

One document drawing new attention is a State Department fact sheet published in the last days of Trump’s administration. The memo notes that the U.S. believes three researchers at a Wuhan, China, lab sought medical treatment for a respiratory illness in November 2019. However, the report is not conclusive: The origin and severity of the staffers’ illness is not known — and most people in China regularly go to hospitals, not primary-care physicians, for routine care.

The memo also pointed to "gain of function" studies — which in theory could enhance the lethality or transmissibility of a virus — allegedly done at the Wuhan lab with U.S. backing. However, National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins has since adamantly denied that the U.S. supported any "gain-of-function" research on coronaviruses in Wuhan.

David Feith, who served as deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs under Trump, said he supported Biden’s call for an enhanced review. "Implicit in the president’s statement is that there is more to analyze and more to collect than has been analyzed or collected to date," Feith said.

The Director of National Intelligence declined to comment.

Is China hampering investigations?

The White House statement criticized China for a lack of transparency, echoing previous criticisms by Democrats and Republicans. "The failure to get our inspectors on the ground in those early months will always hamper any investigation into the origin of COVID-19," the White House said.

The Associated Press has reported on China’s interference in the World Health Organization’s probes of the virus and its fanning of conspiracy theories online. China has also forced journalists to leave the country in recent years and silenced or jailed whistleblowers from Wuhan and elsewhere.

The lack of transparency in China is a significant and familiar challenge. But that does not in itself signal that something in particular is being hidden.

"The problem is when you make that announcement (Biden’s call for investigation) in a highly politicized environment, it makes it even less likely that China will cooperate with efforts to find the origins of the virus," said Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations.

What do scientists believe about virus origins?

The most compelling argument for investigating the possibility of a lab leak is not any new hard evidence, but rather the fact that another pathway for virus spread has not been 100% confirmed.

"The great probability is still that this virus came from a wildlife reservoir," said Arinjay Banerjee, a virologist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization in Saskatchewan, Canada. He pointed to the fact that spillover events – when viruses jump from animals to humans – are common in nature, and that scientists already know of two similar beta coronaviruses that evolved in bats and caused epidemics when humans were infected, SARS1 and MERS.

However, the case is not completely closed. "There are probabilities, and there are possibilities," said Banerjee. "Because nobody has identified a virus that’s 100% identical to SARS-CoV-2 in any animal, there is still room for researchers to ask about other possibilities."

How long does it take to confirm the origin of a virus?

Confirming with 100% certainty the origin of a virus is often not fast, easy, or always even possible.

For example, scientists never confirmed the origin of smallpox before the disease was eradicated through a global vaccination program.

In the case of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) – a disease caused by a beta coronavirus, like the current coronavirus – researchers first identified the virus in February 2003. Later that year, scientists discovered the likely intermediary hosts: Himalayan palm civets found at live-animal markets in Guangdong, China. But it wasn’t until 2017 that researchers traced the likely original source of the virus to bat caves in China’s Yunnan province.

How important is it to understand the origin?

From a scientific perspective, researchers are always keen to better understand how diseases evolve. From a public health perspective, if a virus has transitioned to being spread mostly by human-to-human contact, discovering its origins is not as essential to strategies for containing the disease.

"Questions of origins and questions of disease control are not the same thing once human-to-human transmission has become common," said Deborah Seligsohn, an expert in environment and public health at Villanova University.

Republicans have pressed for more inquiries into a possible lab leak as part of a broader effort to blame China and vindicate Trump's handling of the pandemic. Nearly 600,000 people in the United States have died of COVID-19, the highest toll of any country.

What happens after the 90 days?

Many scientists caution that it's unlikely a 90-day investigation will yield definitive new answers.

"We rarely get a 'smoking gun,'" said Stephen Morse, a disease researcher at Columbia University. "Even under the best of circumstances we rarely get certainty, just degrees of likelihood."

Any findings will likely be politically explosive, especially if new evidence comes to light supporting or dismissing the zoonotic transfer or lab-leak theory. And a failure to reach definitive conclusions, almost inevitable after a 90-day review, could provide grist for Trump supporters and opponents alike, as well as embolden conspiracy theorists.

Meanwhile experts like the Council on Foreign Relations' Huang suspect China may simply clamp down more, adding another complication to already tense relations. "This will likely make it even more challenging to extract concessions from China to allow another team to visit Wuhan, or have unfettered access to investigate there," he said.

It may feel like the U.S. is beginning to return to pre-pandemic times, but in parts of the world, COVID-19 cases are still very high.

The director-general of the World Health Organization warned people the virus is still a threat.

"It would be a monumental error for any country to think the danger has passed," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

"The tailored and consistent use of public health measures in combination with equitable vaccination remains the way out."

He also called on countries to work together to end the pandemic and prepare for the next one.

He proposed a treaty on pandemic preparedness and response.

This story originally reported by Alex Livingston and Eliana Moreno on Newsy.com

Free beer is the latest White House-backed incentive for Americans to get vaccinated for COVID-19, as President Joe Biden is announcing a "month of action" Wednesday to get more shots into arms before the July 4 holiday.Speaking from the White House, Biden is set to update the nation on the vaccination rollout and his plans to get 70% of adults partially vaccinated by Independence Day — essential to his goal of returning the nation to a pre-pandemic sense of normalcy this summer. The latest vaccine sweetener, provided by Anheuser-Busch, builds on other incentives like cash giveaways, sports tickets or paid leave, to keep up the pace of Americans getting shots. The beverage company said once 70% of American adults are at least partially inoculated, it'll buy a round of beer for anyone 21 or older. Consumers will have to upload a picture of themselves in their favorite place to grab a beer — whether it’s a bar or their backyard — to Mycooler.com/Beer to get a free beer, seltzer, non-alcoholic beverage or other A-B product.The White House said Biden's "month of action" will continue to use public and private-sector partnerships to encourage Americans to roll up their sleeves, drawing in businesses, social media influencers, colleges, celebrities and community organizations to help spread the word about the benefits of vaccination and to encourage them to get shots.To date 62.8% of the adult U.S. population have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 133.6 million are full vaccinated. The rate of new vaccinations has slowed again to an average below 600,000 per day, down from more than 800,000 per day when incentives like lotteries were announced, and down from a peak of nearly 2 million per day in early April when demand for shots was much higher.

The president of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee hinted Friday that even local fans may be barred from venues when the games open in just under two months.

Fans from abroad were ruled out months ago as being too risky during a pandemic.

The prospect of empty venues at the postponed Olympics became more likely when the Japanese government decided Friday to extend a state of emergency until June 20 as COVID-19 cases continue to put the medical system under strain.

The state of emergency was to have been lifted on Monday. The extension in Tokyo, Osaka and other prefectures raises even more questions if the Olympics can be held at all.

Organizers and the IOC are insistent they will go ahead despite polls in Japan showing 60-80% want them called off.

"We would like to make a decision as soon as possible (on fans), but after the state of emergency is lifted we will assess," organizing committee president Seiko Hashimoto said at her weekly briefing.

Hashimoto promised to decide on local fans by April, then put it off until early June. Now the deadline is within a month of the July 23 opening date.

"There are many people who are saying that for the Olympic Games we have to run without spectators, although other sports are accepting spectators," Hashimoto said. "So we need to keep that in mind. We need to avoid that the local medical services are affected. We need to take those things into consideration before agreeing on the spectator count."

Cancellation pressure grows daily on Tokyo and the IOC as more questions arise about the risks of bringing 15,000 Olympic and Paralympic athletes from more than 200 countries and territories into Japan, a country that has been largely closed off during the pandemic.

The IOC says more than 80% of athletes and staff staying in the Olympic Village on Tokyo Bay will be vaccinated. They are expected to remain largely in a bubble at the village and at venues.

In addition to athletes, tens of thousands of judges, officials, VIPs, media and broadcasters will also have to enter Japan.

Earlier this week, the New England Journal of Medicine said in a commentary: "We believe the IOC’s determination to proceed with the Olympic Games is not informed by the best scientific evidence."

It questioned the IOC’s so-called Playbooks, which spell out rules at the games for athletes, staff, media and others. The final edition will be published next month. Also this week, the Asahi Shimbun — the country's second-largest newspaper — said the Olympics should be canceled.

The British Medical Journal last month in an editorial also asked organizers to "reconsider" holding the Olympics in the middle of a pandemic.

On Thursday, the head of a small doctors' union in Japan warned that holding the Olympics could lead to the spread of variants of the coronavirus. He mentioned strains in India, Britain, South Africa and Brazil.

Japan has attributed about 12,500 deaths to COVID-19, a relatively small number that has gone up steadily in the last few months. The vaccination rollout began slowly in Japan, but has moved more quickly in the last few days. Vaccinated people are estimated at about 5% of the population.

The IOC, which often cites the World Health Organization as the source of much of its coronavirus information, has been steadfast in saying the games will happen. It receives about 75% of its income from selling broadcast rights, which is estimated to be $2 billion-$3 billion from Tokyo. That cashflow has been slowed by the postponement.

Japan itself has officially spent $15.4 billion or organize the Olympics, and government audits suggest the figure is even higher.

Senior IOC member Richard Pound told a British newspaper this week that "barring Armageddon" the games will take place. Last week, IOC vice president John Coates was asked if the Olympics would open, even if there were a state of emergency.

"Absolutely, yes," he replied.

IOC President Thomas Bach has also said "everyone in the Olympic community" needs to make sacrifices to hold the Olympics.

The message got pushback from Japanese social and local media, some of which noted that the IOC and the so-called Olympic Family are booked into many of Tokyo's top five-star hotels during the games.

Hashimoto defended the IOC's leadership.

"The IOC has a strong determination to hold the games," she said. "So such a strong will is translated into strong words. That’s how I feel."

It's been five months since Congress created a new grant program for live music venues, theaters and museums that were forced to shut their doors because of the pandemic — but none of the $16 billion available has yet been disbursed.

The Small Business Administration has said it expects the first round of grants — going to the hardest-hit businesses — will go out this week. Administrator Isabella Guzman will appear before the House Committee on Small Businesses on Wednesday to testify about the COVID-19 relief programs she oversees.

The months-long wait, made longer by technical delays, is raising anxiety for some venue owners who are desperate for aid as social distancing restrictions are lifted across the country.

Some Broadway shows, including "Hamilton," "Wicked" and "The Lion King," have announced they will return to the stage on Sept. 14 — a promise sign that theaters will be able to put on a fall season.

But uncertainty remains about whether audiences will show up and smaller venues, especially, have a hard time booking future shows without knowing when or if the aid money will come in.

More than 12,000 businesses have applied for one of the grants.

First to close, last to open

Soon after states and cities shut down last March, industry leaders banded together to form the National Independent Venue Association and launched a lobbying campaign known as Save Our Stages. The group now has 3,000 members.

The pressure helped create bipartisan support for an emergency grant program and a bill was introduced last summer.

But live venue owners were kept waiting until December's relief bill. It provided $15 billion in grants for live venue operators and promoters, theaters, and some museums, zoos and aquariums. Owners were still waiting for a chance to apply for a grant when Congress passed another huge COVID-19 relief bill in March, known as the American Rescue plan. It added $1.25 billion to the program.

The new grant can total up to $10 million or up to 45% of 2019 revenue, whichever is less. The money can be used for expenses such as payroll costs, rent, utilities and personal protective equipment — and it doesn't have to be paid back.

Operators who have lost at least 25% of their revenue last year are eligible and the law gives priority to those who have suffered the most economic loss — starting with an exclusive 14-day period to those who lost at least 90%.

Restaurants are getting money faster

Similar emergency grants for struggling restaurants have taken less time to go out. That program, known as the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, was approved by Congress in March and began sending money out two weeks ago, marked with a visit from President Joe Biden to a taqueria in Washington, D.C. About $6 billion has been awarded to date.

But the program won't be able to meet the need. It has received more than 303,000 applications requesting about $69 billion — much more than the $28.6 billion the program was provided by Congress — and the government stopped taking applications Monday.

A portion of the funds have been set aside for the smallest restaurants and bars. Businesses owned by women, veterans, or socially and economically disadvantaged individuals will get first priority for the funds.

The Small Business Administration was tasked with establishing these two new grant programs while also administering two other key relief programs: the Paycheck Protection Program, which lends forgivable loans to small businesses, and the Economic Injury Disaster Loans, which makes longer-term, low-interest loans.

The former is now closed to new applicants but the latter is ongoing.

ROCHESTER, Minn. (AP) — Vice President Mike Pence chose not to wear a face mask while touring the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.

It's an apparent violation of the world-renowned medical center's policy requiring them.

In a statement, the Mayo Clinic said "Mayo shared the masking policy with the VP’s office."

Video feeds show he didn't wear a mask when he met with a Mayo employee who has recovered from COVID-19.

He was also maskless when he visited a coronavirus testing lab.

And Pence was the only participant not to wear a mask during a roundtable discussion.

Food and Drug Administration chief Stephen Hahn was among those wearing masks.

Pence explained his decision by stressing that he has been frequently tested for the virus.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump says his comments suggesting people can ingest or inject disinfectant to fight COVID-19 was an attempt at sarcasm.

Trump noted Thursday that researchers were looking at the effects of disinfectants on the virus and wondered aloud if they could be injected into people, saying the virus “does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that.”

But speaking to reporters in the Oval Office Friday, Trump insisted his comments were misconstrued. “I was asking the question sarcastically to reporters like you, just to see what would happen,” Trump said.

Trump’s comments on disinfectants at Thursday’s briefing came after William Bryan, who leads the Science and Technology Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security, spoke about how researchers are testing the effect of disinfectants on virus-laden saliva and respiratory fluids on surfaces.