Coronavirus updates: Herd immunity by fall 'ambitious,' says surgeon general nominee

The New Zealand Health Ministry announced Sunday it recorded its first coronavirus case from within the community in three months.

New Zealand has been reporting positive cases in managed isolation, which requires anyone who travels into the country, both citizens and non-citizens, to go into a 14-day quarantine in a designated facility. There have been no cases from within the community since November.

The female patient traveled in Spain and the Netherlands late last year for work, according to officials.

"While in the Netherlands she was in contact with family members, who subsequently tested positive for COVID-19," the health ministry said in a statement.

The patient arrived in Auckland on Dec. 30 following a trip from the United Kingdom with a layover in Singapore, according to the Health Ministry. The patient stayed at a hotel during her 14-day quarantine and tested negative on Jan. 2 and Jan. 10, according to the Health Ministry.

"The person started developing mild symptoms on 15 January and these progressively got worse. The person had a test taken on Friday 22 January and self-isolated at home," the Health Ministry said in a statement.

The patient's roommate hasn't shown any symptoms so far, but has been tested and is isolating at home, according to the Health Ministry.

The Health Ministry said it is contact tracing and carrying out rapid genome sequencing to see if there's a match to one of the more transmissible variants.

-ABC News' Christine Theodorou

Chicago Public Schools announced Sunday they will postpone the in-person start for kindergarten through eighth grade teachers after the Chicago Teachers Union announced voted over the weekend to continue remote work.

Teachers were scheduled to report to in-person learning on Monday, but that was pushed back to Wednesday, according to CPS. "While we agree with our labor partners on many aspects of a smooth expansion of in-person learning, our discussions are ongoing. To ensure we reach a resolution without a disruption to student learning, we’ve agreed to push back the return of K-8 teachers, staff to Wed, 1/27," CPS said in a statement.

Kindergarten through eighth grade are slated to return to in-person learning on Feb. 1. Pre-K and special education students have been going to in-person classes since the beginning of the month.

In a statement, the union said that there was concern among members regarding the rise in COVID-19 cases and the small number of students who have opted to return to in-person learning.

Chicago Public Schools said 37% of parents surveyed intend for their kids to return, according to ABC station WLS. The union noted that the number of eligible students who can currently return to in-person is also low.

"But the fact of the matter remains this: 19% of students have returned. The district doesn’t need anywhere near all of our membership to return to meet that need," CTU said in a statement.

Some parents who wished to have their children return to class in person took up their pleas directly to the union this weekend.

"Parents should not be vilified or bullied for needing a choice to return to in-person learning," Sarah Sachen told WLS.

The possibility of obtaining herd immunity by the time summer is over and a new school year begins may be an "ambitious goal," Vivek Murthy, President Joe Biden's nominee for U.S. surgeon general, told George Stephanopoulos on "This Week" Sunday.

"I think what -- I think we can see improvement," Murthy said. "I think we can see reductions in cases and hospitalizations and deaths. I think we can see many more people immunized."

The "important thing" will be getting as many people vaccinated as possible, Murthy added.

"The more people we vaccinate, the better we will do, the fewer outbreaks we will see, the sooner we can get back to our way of life," he said.

Murthy also emphasized the importance of dispelling misinformation as well as continuing to take the necessary precautions, such as wearing masks and avoiding indoor gatherings.

"Then I think we can be on a path to not only turning the pandemic around, but, most importantly, getting our schools open, our workplaces back up and running, and regaining our way of life," he said.

The U.S. has surpassed 25 million cases of COVID-19, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally.

The national total confirmed case count currently sits at 25,003,695.

Last week, the U.S. surpassed 400,000 deaths from the virus. The death toll is currently at 417,463 in the U.S. and at 2,122,766 worldwide.

The number of global confirmed cases is nearing 100 million, currently sitting at 98,853,428.

-ABC News’ Joshua Hoyos