Here's how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Dec 21, 2021, 4:08 PM EST
Inmates on home confinement due to pandemic can stay out of prison, DOJ says
About 4,000 nonviolent inmates placed under home confinement due to COVID-19 will not be forced to return to prison at the expiration of the public health emergency, as long as officials determine they have not broken rules and made rehabilitative progress during the period of their release, the Justice Department said.
The announcement follows an extensive review by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel that for months weighed whether there was any way to keep the inmates placed on home confinement from being forced back into incarceration. An earlier OLC opinion released during the final days of the Trump administration determined they would have to return to prison within a month of the emergency’s expiration.
-ABC News' Alexander Mallin
Dec 21, 2021, 3:42 PM EST
Biden calls out those spreading misinformation 'that can kill their own customers'
With omicron now the dominant variant in the U.S., President Joe Biden said in a public address Tuesday, "If you're not fully vaccinated, you have good reason to be concerned."
"The unvaccinated have a significantly higher risk of ending up in a hospital -- or even dying," he said.
Biden said "the unvaccinated are responsible for their own choices" but also blamed "dangerous misinformation on cable TV and social media."
"These companies and personalities are making money by peddling lies and allowing misinformation that can kill their own customers and their own supporters. It's wrong. It's amoral," he said. "I call on the purveyors of these lies and misinformation to stop it."
When reporters confronted the president about people struggling to find tests before the holidays, Biden said omicron "spread even more rapidly than anybody thought."
The Philadelphia Department of Public Health distributes free rapid at-home coronavirus disease (COVID-19) testing kits at a vaccination clinic in Philadelphia, December, 21 2021.
Hannah Beier/Reuters
Biden said the omicron surge created a "big rush" for tests and that this does not resemble a "failure" from the administration.
President Joe Biden speaks about the status of the countrys fight against Covid-19 and the Omicron variant, in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, DC, December 21, 2021.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
Biden announced a new 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.
The federal government is also opening more testing sites and mobilizing 1,000 military doctors and nurses to overburdened hospitals.
Dec 21, 2021, 2:16 PM EST
Atlanta reinstates indoor mask mandate
Atlanta is reinstating an indoor mask mandate due to a recent case surge in the area, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said.
"We are watching the data daily and will continue to engage experts for guidance on how best to provide for the safety and wellbeing of our communities," the mayor said in a statement.
Dec 21, 2021, 1:56 PM EST
New Orleans moving ahead with Mardi Gras
New Orleans is moving ahead with Mardi Gras 2022, which falls on March 1, Mayor Latoya Cantrell announced.
Vehicles line up to view Mardi Gras floats at the Float in the Oaks event in City Park, Feb. 14, 2021 in New Orleans.
