Coronavirus Watch: J&J submits vaccine booster data to FDA

Johnson & Johnson said Tuesday it submitted data to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration showing a booster shot of its COVID-19 vaccine is safe and significantly increases protection against disease.

Johnson & Johnson says its data, published last month, shows a booster given 56 days after a first dose of its vaccine provides 94% protection against symptomatic COVID-19 and 100% protection against severe disease.

Johnson & Johnson's vaccine is one of three authorized for use in the United States.

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

• The Washington National Cathedral was expected to toll its funeral bell 700 times Tuesday evening in memory of the more than 700,000 lives lost to COVID-19 in the U.S. The tolling will start at 5 p.m. ET and take over an hour.
• AstraZeneca said it was seeking FDA emergency use authorization for its "long-acting" antibody combination to treat COVID-19.
• The FDA authorized a new COVID-19 home test that the agency says will soon double the nation's limited supply of non-prescription tests.
• The director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Francis S. Collins, says he is stepping down by the end of the year, having led the research center for 12 years. He became a prominent source of public information during the pandemic.

Today's numbers: The U.S. has reported more than 43.6 million COVID-19 cases and 701,000 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Worldwide, there have been more than 235 million cases and more than 4.8 million deaths. About 65% of people in the U.S. have received at least one vaccine shot, and about 56% are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. Among U.S. adults, 78% have received at least one shot, and about 67% are fully vaccinated.

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.

And in a new USA TODAY special edition, read about how the Department of Homeland Security is confronting COVID-19, from setting up community vaccination centers to preventing ransomware attacks on hospitals.

– Grace Hauck, USA TODAY breaking news reporter, @grace_hauck