By Ben Westcott, Adam Renton, Melissa Macaya and Melissa Mahtani, CNN
From CNN's John Bonifield
Approximately 2.1 million vaccine doses have been administered in the United States, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As of 9 a.m. Monday, the CDC Covid Data Tracker said 11,445,175 doses have been distributed and 2,127,143 have been administered.
That's an additional 1,897,250 doses distributed, and 182,558 doses administered since the CDC's figures were last updated on Saturday.
From CNN’s Lauren Mascarenhas
Dr. Elaine Batchlor, CEO of Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in Los Angeles, said Monday that staff may soon have to ration care if the number of coronavirus patients rises.
Batchlor said her hospital is so overwhelmed with coronavirus cases, it is now treating patients in the gift shop and chapel.
“If we continue to see an increase in the number of Covid patients, we may be forced to do something that, as health professionals, we all really just loathe having to even think about,” Batchlor told CNN’s Brooke Baldwin.
Batchlor said the hospital will not turn patients away but may have to employ techniques that have been used during times of war.
“We use what in the battlefield is called triage techniques, which is doing an assessment of each person's needs and prognosis and using scarce resources with patients that are most likely to benefit from them,” she said.
From CNN's Patrick Oppmann and Claudia Dominguez
Cuba will restrict international flights coming from several countries and tighten border restrictions starting Jan. 1, 2021 after a rise in new coronavirus cases in the island, according to the Cuban state-run Cuba Debate.
The new measures include temporarily restrict the arrival of travelers from the US, Mexico, Panama, Bahamas, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. From Jan. 10, travelers from the rest of the countries will be required to show a negative Covid-19 PCR test taken 72 hours before traveling, and follow health protocols established by authorities upon arrival to Cuba, according to Cuba’s Ministry of Public Health.
The country has seen a surge in new coronavirus cases recently after international travelers started arriving in the country, Cuba’s Ministry of Public Health said on its website.
Cuba reopened its international airports in November after partially closing them in March in an effort to reduce Covid-19 infections.
At least 71.5% of the new cases detected were traced to travelers arriving from the US, Mexico, Panama, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and the Bahamas, among other countries, Cuba Debate reported.
The ministry’s National Director of Epidemiology, Dr. Francisco Duran Garcia, said that 3,783 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in the country between the beginning of November and Dec. 23, according to the state-run news outlet.
Reducing the number of travelers will decrease the number of cases that are being “imported into the country,” Garcia was quoted as saying by Cuba Debate.
Cuban health officials on Monday reported a total of 229 new Covid-19 cases and one new death in the past 24 hours. Cuba has so far registered a total of 11,434 coronavirus cases and 143 deaths, according to the country's health ministry.
From CNN’s Sarah Dean and Samantha Tapfumaneyi
The UK recorded a further 41,385 coronavirus cases on Monday, breaking its daily record since the pandemic began.
A further 357 people have died, according to government data.
Responding to the data, Dr. Yvonne Doyle, Medical Director for Public Health England, said the very high level of Covid-19 infection in England is of "growing concern."
The increase comes at a time when "hospitals are at their most vulnerable, with new admission rising in many regions," Doyle added.
Figures from NHS England show 20,426 hospital beds are currently occupied by confirmed Covid-19 cases.
This is worse than the figure forecast by the British Medical Journal (BMJ) and the Health Service Journal (HSJ) earlier in December, when they warned the government should reverse its decision to relax Covid-19 restrictions over Christmas. They predicted hospitalizations in England on New Year’s Eve could be just short of the pandemic’s peak in April (19,000) unless tighter measures were brought in.
The government did ultimately bring in tougher restrictions in many parts of England. It reversed a plan allowing people in the rest of England to get together for five days around Christmas, cutting the window down to just one day – Christmas Day itself. The U-turn came in response to the detection of a new variant of Covid-19 that appears to spread more rapidly.
"Despite unprecedented levels of infection, there is hope on the horizon," Doyle said in a statement released Monday. The UK has begun its vaccination program with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is set to receive UK regulatory approval within days. It could be rolled out by January 4, British media reported on Sunday.
From CNN’s Virginia Langmaid
There have been at least 19,221,164 cases of coronavirus in the US, and at least 334,025 people have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
So far today, Johns Hopkins has recorded 88,438 new cases and 907 reported deaths.
At least 9,547,925 vaccine doses have been distributed and at least 1,944,585 doses of the vaccine have been administered, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases.
From CNN’s Taylor Romine
New Jersey is expected to vaccinate approximately 31,000 long-term care residents and staff by the end of this week, Gov. Phil Murphy said in a Monday news conference.
The state started its long-term care vaccination program this morning, with CVS planning to visit 85 long-term care facilities and provide more than 27,600 vaccinations, Murphy said. Walgreens is expected to visit 15 different care sites and provide approximately 4,100 vaccinations, he continued.
"With each passing day, our vaccination program is growing a little larger and a lot stronger," Murphy told reporters. "With the New Year, we are looking forward to the opening of our six vaccination mega sites and the further expansion of our vaccine efforts, and the continued movement through each priority group."
Murphy later clarified that the "mega sites" will be open only to those in the current phase of vaccine distribution. It is likely that these sites will mostly serve health care workers, he said.
What the numbers look like: New Jersey reported 2,745 new Covid-19 cases and 21 additional deaths, with a positivity rate of 10.98%. There are currently 3,684 people hospitalized with 715 patients in intensive care, Murphy said.
As of today, 220,425 doses of vaccines have been delivered overall with 46,217 doses administered, according to Department of Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli. These numbers might change as they get updated reports from over the weekend, she said.
Murphy also addressed an event of 200 people shut down over the weekend, saying that while he didn't have all the details it sounded "incredibly irresponsible." He said that it will likely be difficult for contact tracers to get in touch with everyone related to the event.
Note: These numbers were released by the state of New Jersey, and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.
From CNN's Maureen Chowdhury
President Trump signed the the $900 billion Covid-19 relief package on Sunday, after he initially threw the bill in doubt by asking Congress to amend it right before the Christmas holiday.
The legislation, which was negotiated on a bipartisan basis, provides for $600 in direct payments. After the deal passed in Congress, Trump called for $2,000 checks instead.
CNN asked you, our viewers and readers, after Congress passed the bill for your thoughts on the latest relief package. Many expressed frustrations over the direct payment of $600 and said the bill does not provide enough assistance.
Briana, from Concord, North Carolina, lost her job as a business development coordinator for a massage franchise due to the pandemic back in March and hasn’t received unemployment payments since October. She and her husband now rely on unsteady income they make from a small flooring company they own, where her husband also works.
She told CNN that while the $600 stimulus check is beneficial, it is not enough for her family to get through the next few months, especially since she’s concerned about making her mortgage payments on time.
"$600 per adult plus the $500 per child is not enough to get us through, let’s just say four months," she said.
"So, we have been very, very frugal with our money," Briana explained.
She said the first stimulus package from earlier this year was much more helpful.
Briana also noted that her situation is especially difficult since she made the decision to homeschool her 7-year-old daughter because of the uncertainty over in-person and virtual learning.
She told CNN that homeschooling takes up six to seven hours of her day, and she also dedicates time assisting her daughter with schoolwork. While Briana has been looking for work, it’s been difficult to find a job that works with her current schedule.
“People like me and my family, fall between the cracks,” she said. “We need some help.”
Nicole, a self-employed hairdresser from Los Angeles, California, who has been out of work for most of the year, called the $600 payment an “insult.” She’s been relying on the income of her husband and unemployment payments.
“We’re two income household and we need two incomes to make it work,” Nicole told CNN. Being unable to work has been a “big hit,” she said.
She told CNN the current package is not enough, and like Briana, she said the first stimulus package was more helpful.
"We’ve been sitting here waiting and praying for six or seven months now since the end of July when the first… unemployment, pandemic support ended and since that ended something is better than nothing, yes, but what are we meant to do with that? Where’s that supposed to go? When there’s so many places for it to go," Nicole said.
She also expressed frustrations on how long it took for the current package to pass, calling it “unacceptable."
The US House of Representatives could pass a provision Monday night aimed at increasing the amount of money individuals and families receive in stimulus checks to $2,000.
Matthew Cox lost his job as a manager in the service industry and has been searching for full-time employment since August.
He had to relocate his family from south Florida to Indiana so his wife's family could help with child care. Now, he's working for the food delivery service DoorDash and makes about $300 a month.
"It doesn't even pay the rent. So I have had to borrow money from my family, I've had to sell some stuff, take out savings and 401(k). So I'm at the point now where it's kind of living day to day," Cox said.
After months of negotiations, President Trump finally approved a $900 billion relief package that includes $600 direct stimulus payments to help people like Cox – but he said it's not enough.
"That is not really going help anybody. It is kind of almost insulting," Cox said about the $600 direct payments
"When the federal government says 'hey this is what we're going to do and this is the numbers we're going to get and hope everyone is happy,' for us out there making less money or no money, it doesn't really do a whole lot for us," he added.
Tonight: The House of Representatives is set to vote on a measure to increase stimulus checks for Americans under a certain income level to $2,000. More direct payments was something Trump argued for before signing the bill this weekend.
House Republicans blocked an effort by Democrats to advance $2,000 checks last week, but the House will try again on Monday with a floor vote. That vote will require a two-thirds majority to pass since it is taking place under a suspension of the rules, a threshold that means it would need a wide margin of bipartisan support to be approved.
From CNN’s Duarte Mendonca
Spain has reported an additional 298 coronavirus deaths since its last data was published on Thursday. That brings the country's total death toll to 50,122 since the pandemic began, according to Spain’s health ministry.
The country currently sits 10th in the global coronavirus death toll list, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
The health ministry also reported 24,462 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of cases to 1,879,413, the data shows.
