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

Portugal said it would limit outdoor gatherings to 10 people and prohibit outdoor drinking on New Year's Eve. 

The country, which has 52 confirmed omicron cases, will also require most people to work from home starting on Saturday, the president's office told ABC News on Tuesday. 

The new restrictions, which are set to expire Jan. 10, will require people to present negative COVID-19 tests as they enter sporting events, theaters, weddings and other large gatherings. 

Bars, discos, and schools will close on Saturday, the president's office said. 

The country reported an uptick in COVID-19 cases between Dec. 16 and Dec. 19, but numbers were slightly down on Tuesday, with 2,752 newly diagnosed cases and 18 deaths, according to the World Health Organization's COVID-19 dashboard. Portugal's adult population is 87% fully vaccinated.

-ABC News' Aicha El-Hammar Castano

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced a vaccine mandate for most indoor events as the city grasps with a rise in COVID-19 cases.

Starting Jan. 3, anyone over the age of 5 will have to show proof that they are fully vaccinated to "to dine indoors, visit gyms, or enjoy entertainment venues where food or drink are being served," the mayor's office said in a statement.

Patrons 16 and older will also need to "provide identification that matches their vaccination record," according to the statement.

Chicago is averaging more than 1,700 new COVID-19 cases a day -- a 79% increase from one week ago, the mayor's office said.

Elliot Hospital in New Hampshire is now seeing three to four times as many patients as it had at the beginning of the pandemic, Dr. Laura McPhee told ABC News.

She said their ICU is full with COVID-19 patients and staff is running thin.

"We're tired. It's been extremely hard on everybody," McPhee said, stressing that "most of the patients that we're seeing are unvaccinated."

"Most days I've been angry and frustrated. … Because this is preventable. It doesn't have to happen," she said. "I've not ever seen a patient here in the ICU who has been fully vaccinated with a booster."

-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos

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