Omicron updates: COVID outbreak reported on cruise ship docking in New Orleans

Nearly 132,000 children tested positive for COVID-19 last week, as pediatric cases remain "extremely high." according to a new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.

This marks the 16th consecutive week that weekly pediatric COVID-19 cases have been above 100,000. Prior to the recent increases, infections among children had been steadily dropping since the pandemic peak of 252,000 child cases, recorded over the span of a week in early September.

At this time, severe illness due to COVID-19 remains "uncommon" among children, the two organizations wrote in the report. However, they warn that there is an urgent need to collect more data on the long-term consequences of the pandemic on children.

The latest report comes amid growing concerns surrounding the new omicron variant, launching a renewed push to get all eligible Americans vaccinated against COVID-19. To date, about 36% of children ages 5 to 17 have received at least one dose, according to federal data.

-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos

Advisers from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have narrowly approved an endorsement of the Merck COVID-19 pill, voting 13 to 10 in favor of the authorization.

If authorized, it would be the first easy-to-take antiviral pill for COVID-19. Pfizer is also working on a COVID-19 pill, which it hopes will be authorized early next year. The FDA typically takes the advice of its advisers but will make its own final decision. 

During Tuesday’s meeting, advisers spoke positively on Merck's pill, even though it was not found to be quite as effective in the final analysis as it was in an early, preliminary analysis.

However, the advisers expressed doubt about whether it would be safe for pregnant people to use Merck's pill because of the potential risk of harm to the fetus as well as its use in children due to lack of data and similar concerns as in pregnancy. 

-ABC News' Sony Salzman

If a variant-specific vaccine is needed, the process, including FDA and CDC authorization, would take about three months, White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said at Tuesday's White House briefing.

The omicron variant has still not been detected in the U.S. Delta "remains the predominant circulating string representing 99.9% of all sequences sampled," CDC director Rochelle Walensky said.

Walensky said the CDC is also working on expanding a surveillance program through JFK International Airport, San Francisco International Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport that would conduct more tests on international arrivals. 

Walensky added, "To be crystal clear, we have far more tools to fight the variant today than we had at this time last year."

-ABC News' Cheyenne Haslett

The World Health Organization praised South Africa and Botswana on Tuesday for the "speed and transparency" in which they reported on the new omicron variant.

The WHO stressed that "blanket travel bans will not prevent the international spread, and they place a heavy burden on lives and livelihoods."

"In addition, they can adversely impact global health efforts during a pandemic by disincentivizing countries to report and share epidemiological and sequencing data," the WHO said.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, while on a plane to Nigeria, told reporters Tuesday that South Africa should not be "punished" with travel bans for being transparent.

"These bans must be removed," he said.

"We have advanced in the world to a point where we now know when people travel, they should be tested, like I was tested last night and I'm happy to be tested when I arrive again," he said.

"And for us, the tourism industry is one of the key industries. … This is discriminatory against us, and they are imposing a very unfair punishment," he said.

-ABC News' Christine Theodorou