COVID updates: New Zealand imposes restrictions amid omicron outbreak

While it's not clear how many people have placed an order for free COVID-19 tests since the White House's site launched Tuesday, the order form on the U.S. Postal Service website -- special.usps.com/testkits -- has been visited over 27 million times so far.

This initiative from the Biden administration' allows Americans to order up to four free at-home rapid tests per household.

-ABC News' Cheyenne Haslett

Following weeks of increasing cases, forecast models used by the CDC suggest that U.S. death totals will likely continue to increase over the next four weeks.

The models predict about 32,000 more Americans could die from COVID-19 over just the next two weeks.

By Feb. 12, about 931,000 total lives could be lost in the U.S. to the virus.

The CDC obtains the forecasts from the COVID-19 Forecast Hub at UMass Amherst, where a team monitors and combines forecasting models from the nation’s top researchers. The team then creates an ensemble -- displayed like a hurricane forecast spaghetti plot -- usually with a wide cone of uncertainty.

-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Wednesday the end of all COVID-19 measures in England that were imposed to combat the highly contagious omicron variant.

Effective immediately, secondary school students will no longer be required to wear face masks in classrooms. Starting next week, masks will not be compulsory anywhere, including on public transport and in shops. However, Johnson said his government will continue to advise people to wear masks in indoor or crowded settings.

The work-from-home guidance will also be lifted next week, along with mandatory COVID-19 passes at large venues, though business are allowed to use them if they wish.

People will still be required to self-isolate after testing positive for COVID-19, but the prime minister said there will "soon be a time" when that won't be mandated. The measure is due to expire in March, but Johnson said that date could be brought forward.

So-called Plan B restrictions were introduced in England last December amid a surge of COVID-19 cases as omicron quickly spread across the United Kingdom. The country's daily number of new cases remains high but appears to be dropping over the past week along with hospital admissions, while deaths are increasing.

Newly reported COVID-19 cases increased 20% last week, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday. 

More than 18 million new cases were reported in the week ending Jan. 16, up from about 15 million in the previous week, according to the United Nation's health agency's weekly epidemiological update. 

Last week's increase marked a decline from the 55% increase reported the previous week, the agency said. 

"Nonetheless, a combination of the increased and rapid spread of the Omicron variant, increased population movements and social mixing during and after the end of year holiday period and challenges with ongoing adherence to public health and social measures (PHSM) are expected to lead to increased number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths in the coming weeks," Tuesday's report said. 

About 45,000 new deaths were reported worldwide last week, up from about 43,000 the previous week, the agency said.