Coronavirus Watch: FDA OKs extra dose for immunocompromised

Since July 1, there's been a 700% increase in 7-day rolling average of COVID-19 infections in U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The information was presented Friday at the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meeting during a discussion of possible COVID-19 vaccine booster shots for immunocompromised patients.

Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration recommended the less than 3% of Americans who are severely immunocompromised should be able to get an extra dose of the Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.

People who are on medications or have diseases that suppress their immune system may not have gotten adequate protection from their earlier doses of COVID-19 vaccine and are more likely to mount a response to an additional dose, the FDA determined.

It's Friday, and this is Coronavirus Watch from the USA TODAY Network. Here's more news you need to know.

���Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' ban on mandatory school masks faces an early test Friday as a judge scheduled a hearing on a lawsuit brought by parents from a half-dozen Florida counties urging that limits on mandatory masking in schools be lifted as students return to class in many Florida counties.

►A federal judge on Friday allowed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention evictions moratorium to remain in place due to a prior ruling from the appeals court above her.

►The National Education Association, the nation's largest teacher's union, said it supported policies that would require all teachers to get vaccinated or submit to regular testing, as cases among children rise around the nation. 

►Florida hospitals are near a breaking point as COVID-19 patients fill intensive care units and spill into other units while stretched-thin staff struggle to keep burnout at bay. By next week, 68% of hospitals expect to reach a critical staffing shortage, according to an Aug. 9 survey conducted twice weekly by the Florida Hospital Association.

►As Mississippi set a record for new COVID-19 cases Thursday with more than 4,400 – the second time this week the state set that record – its hospitals and health care workers are increasingly feeling the pressures of the surge. At the University of Mississippi Medical Center, the state's largest hospital, tents to care for the influx of COVID-19 patients are going up.

Today's numbers: The U.S. has reported more than 36.3 million COVID-19 cases and 619,200 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Worldwide, there have been more than 205 million cases and more than 4.3 million deaths. About 59% of people in the U.S. and 71.5% of U.S. adults have received at least one vaccine shot, and about 50% of people in the U.S. are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.

What we're reading: More kids are getting COVID just as school resumes. Here are the facts, the fights and the fallout, from USA TODAY's editor-in-chief Nicole Carroll in The Backstory.

Tracking the pandemic: See the numbers in your area here. See where cases are rising here. See vaccination rates here. And here, compare vaccinations rates worldwide and see which countries are using which vaccines.

– Ryan Miller, USA TODAY breaking new reporter, @RyanW_Miller