COVID-19 live updates: City sees fourfold increase in pediatric hospitalizations

The U.S. is now reporting more than 132,000 new cases every day. Since the beginning of December, the case average has surged by over 50%, according to federal data.

New York City has the nation's highest new case rate, according to CDC data, and is now averaging more new cases than at any other point in the pandemic. Cases in the nation's most populous city are trending up on an exponential curve, surging by about 640% in the last month.

New York City mayor-elect Eric Adams said Tuesday that he's postponing his inauguration, initially set for Jan. 1, due to the surge.

New York isn't the only place seeing a rise. In Florida, the average number of daily cases has more than tripled in the last week, according to federal data.

-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos

President Joe Biden will speak to the public at 2:30 p.m. ET Tuesday, announcing new steps to combat the pandemic.

Biden will announce a plan to distribute 500 million free at-home rapid tests to Americans beginning in January. The free at-home rapid tests will be delivered by mail to Americans who request them. Americans will have to request the tests through a website that will launch in January, a senior administration official said.

The president is also set to introduce new federal testing sites around the U.S., the first several of which will launch in New York City by Christmas.

The government will also mobilize 1,000 military doctors and nurses to overburdened hospitals, the senior administration official said. There are currently 175 troops spread over four states, and since August 2021, when a joint military operation across the Army, Navy and Air Force began, about 530 medical military personnel have been deployed to work alongside civilian health care providers.

-ABC News' Cheyenne Haslett, Sarah Kolinovsky

Massachusetts will activate up to 500 National Guard members as the state faces a "critical staffing shortage," Gov. Charlie Baker's office said Tuesday.

Besides a staffing shortage, hospitals are also seeing an influx of patients, but many patients are from "non-COVID related reasons," the office said.

Beginning Dec. 27, all hospitals will be directed to postpone or cancel nonessential elective procedures that are likely to result in hospital admission.

Massachusetts has also updated its mask guidance, recommending that everyone, including those vaccinated, wear a mask in indoor, public places.

-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos

Dr, Anthony Fauci on Tuesday called omicron's spread "unprecedented."

"It is really extremely unusual," he told "Good Morning America." "It's a doubling time of two to three days, closer to two days. Which means that if you start off with a few percentage of the isolates being omicron, and you do the math and double that every couple of days, it's not surprising that just a week or two ago we had only 8% to 10%, and now we have 73% of all the isolates are omicron. That's truly unprecedented in the rapidity with which a virus spreads."

Fauci predicted omicron's peak will be soon.

"It's going to be a matter of a couple of weeks that we then start to see just as dramatic a decline," he said. "That's what we're hoping for."

"When you have something that goes up this quickly, often you see it come right back down. Because what will happen is that either almost everyone is either going to get infected, particularly the unvaccinated, or be vaccinated," he said. "And the vaccinated people will either be -- particularly the boosted people, and it's very important to underscore right now the importance of getting boosted -- that those people will either be protected from infection, or if they do get infected, they'll have a relatively mild course of infection."

World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday recommended delaying or canceling holiday events, saying, "an event canceled is better than a life canceled."

Fauci told "GMA" that family gatherings are safe if you know everyone is vaccinated.

"When you have a family setting, for example, parents, grandparents, children, who are vaccinated, you should have an enjoyable Christmas and holiday gathering, dinner, whatever in your own home," Fauci said. "What you want to stay away from is indoor congregant sittings in which you do not know the vaccination status of the people around you. That would be quite risky."