Coronavirus Watch: Infections rising in 24 states as weather cools

COVID-19 infections appear to be creeping higher in about half of U.S. states as winter approaches, suggesting the nation may not have seen the last of the delta variant surge.

Cases rose week-over-week in 24 states in the seven-day period that ended Wednesday, a Paste BN analysis of Johns Hopkins University data suggests.

The rolling average of seven-day case counts nationwide has stabilized after a month of steady declines. Cases were rising primarily in colder states that hadn't been as hard-hit in the worst of the delta wave.

It's Thursday and this is Coronavirus Watch from the Paste BN Network. Here's more news to know:

• Workers at larger businesses must get vaccinated by Jan. 4 or face regular testing under federal rules being released Thursday. Workers who choose the testing option may have to bear the cost.
• New York City Mayor-elect Eric Adams tells MSNBC he wants to "revisit" the city's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for city workers. Adams said he will encourage Mayor Bill de Blasio to "sit down with the unions" that have resisted the edict. 
• Britain became the first nation to approve a pill to treat COVID-19. The tablet, molnupiravir, was developed by New Jersey-based Merck and will be given twice a day to patients recently diagnosed with the disease. 
• U.S. life expectancy fell by almost two years in 2020 from 2019 as the pandemic shook the world, according to a study of 37 nations published in the BMJ, formerly the British Medical Journal.

Today's numbers: The U.S. has recorded 46.2 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and more than 750,500 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Global totals: More than 248.3 million cases and 5 million deaths. More than 192.9 million Americans – 58.1% of the population – are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.

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.

– John Bacon and Mike Stucka, Paste BN, @realjohnbacon, @mikestucka