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The Obama administration said Tuesday that nearly 2.5 million people had selected health insurance plans through the federal marketplace in the first four weeks of open enrollment this fall. More than one million of those selections came in just one week, from Dec. 6 through last Friday. (Pear, 12/16)

As expected, interest in healthcare.gov soared in the final days before the mid-December deadline, with 1.6 million people phoning the call center from Dec. 13 through Dec. 15, officials told reporters. (Carey, 12/17)

The numbers significantly outstrip sign-ups through the first four weeks of last year’s enrollment period, when the site was hobbled by technical problems, and show the site is generally functional. “Our technology and call center representatives have done their job,” Mr. Slavitt told reporters Tuesday afternoon. But HHS officials also said the site and its supporting infrastructure had at times struggled with volume. (Radnofsky and Armour, 12/16)

Data from the other states that operate their own websites, such as California and New York, is not included in the agency's figures. (Humer and Begley, 12/16)

Tuesday's numbers were partial, really just a subtotal. They reflected the 37 states served by HealthCare.gov. Enrollment for states running their own websites will be reported later. And Tuesday's numbers also did not include totals from the weekend and Monday, which saw strong consumer interest. (12/16)

The Department of Health and Human Services said Tuesday that about half of those signing up for coverage between Nov. 15 and Dec. 12 were new customers. The other half were renewing customers. Any current policyholder who missed the Dec. 15 renewal deadline will be automatically re-enrolled. This second open enrollment season will continue until Feb. 15, but individuals who wanted to get covered as of Jan. 1 had to sign up by 3 a.m. Tuesday EST. (Pradhan, 12/16)

Up to 500,000 people heard automated messages and left their names. They are awaiting return calls or receiving them Tuesday, said HHS principal deputy administrator Andy Slavitt on a press call Tuesday afternoon. That's out of 1.6 million people who phoned the call center over the weekend and through Monday. The website and call center "have done their jobs so far," Slavitt said. Peak volume on the website Monday was 125,000 concurrent users, he said. The site didn't run into "capacity constraints," though he acknowledged a waiting room page was used for about 90 minutes while a database was updated. (O'Donnell, 12/16)

Nearly 2.5 million people selected a health plan on the HealthCare.gov website as of midnight on Friday, Dec. 12, the Obama administration announced Tuesday. After the 2015 open enrollment period began on November 15, consumer activity on the website began to peak as the December 15 deadline neared to purchase health insurance that begins on New Year's Day 2015. (Pugh, 12/16)

Last year, just under 7 million people signed up on the exchanges. They'll be automatically re-enrolled unless they decline to be. Several million more people got health insurance, often for the first time, in the more than 20 states that agreed to expand the Medicaid state-federal health insurance plan for people with low incomes. (Fox, 12/16)