COVID updates: New Zealand imposes restrictions amid omicron outbreak

New Jersey will require workers in health care and high-risk congregate settings such as nursing homes and correctional facilities to get the COVID-19 booster, Gov. Phil Murphy said Wednesday.

"The science tells us that it's no longer good enough to just receive your primary series, as being boosted is necessary to protect yourself and those around you," Murphy said at a press briefing announcing the executive order.

The executive order also ends COVID-19 testing as an alternative to vaccination, requiring all workers in health care and high-risk congregate settings to be fully vaccinated and boosted unless they have a medical or religious exemption. The requirement is in line with the Biden administration's vaccine mandate for health care workers at facilities that treat Medicare and Medicaid patients. 

Health care workers subject to the federal vaccine mandate have until Feb. 28 to submit proof that they have completed their primary vaccination series or received a booster shot if eligible. All other health care workers and employees in high-risk congregate settings have until March 30. Newly vaccinated workers will have to submit proof of a booster within three weeks of becoming eligible for the shot.

Anyone found noncompliant can face disciplinary action, including termination. 

"We are no longer going to look past those who continue to put their colleagues, and perhaps I think even more importantly those who are their responsibility, in danger of COVID," Murphy said. "That has to stop."

Nearly 159,000 Americans are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 -- a pandemic high -- according to federal data. 

On average, more than 21,000 Americans with COVID-19 are being admitted to the hospital each day, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows. Nearly 26,000 Americans with the virus currently require intensive care.

Americans 65 years and older currently account for the largest percentage of COVID-19-related hospitalizations, followed by 18- to 49-year-olds. 

Emergency department visits for COVID-19 patients declined nearly 14% over the last week.

It is largely unclear how many patients were admitted to the hospital for COVID-19 versus coincidentally testing positive for the virus after they were admitted for other reasons. Experts say these totals likely vary widely, community by community, and that a COVID-19 diagnosis, regardless of the reason behind the initial admission, can cause additional strain on a health system.

-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos

Dr. Anthony Fauci predicts that most states will be past the omicron peak by mid-February.

"I would imagine as we get into February, into the middle of February, first few weeks of February, it is very likely that most of the states in the country will have turned around with their peak and are starting to come down with regard to cases, and then obviously hospitalizations," Fauci said at a Blue Star Families event.

"Right now, there's no doubt that in New York City and other parts of New York state and in New Jersey, it has already peaked and is rather dramatically on its way down," Fauci said. "We're seeing that also in bigger cities such as Chicago, where as in cities in the South, it has not yet peaked and likely will have more of a slower incline and a slower decline, such as in places like New Orleans and in other cities in Louisiana."

Fauci said he expects data on vaccines for kids under 5 will be delivered to the FDA in the next month.

"They're determining now that for children within that age group, it is likely that it will be a three-dose vaccine. And that being the case, it's going to take a little longer to get those data to the FDA and approved," he explained. "My hope is that it's going to be within the next month or so and not much later than that. But I can't guarantee that because I can't out guess the FDA, I'm gonna have to leave that to them."

-ABC News' Cheyenne Haslett

On average, about 21,000 virus-positive Americans are being admitted to hospitals each day -- a figure that has more than doubled over the last month.

WellSpan Chambersburg Hospital in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, has more patients now than any point in the pandemic, according to nurse Erin Hammond.

"Our emergency rooms are full to overflowing. Our critical care unit has now doubled up rooms. We're taking more patients -- sicker patients -- than we ever have before," Hammond told ABC News.

She noted that she's seen people in their 20s, 30s and 40s "ending up very sick and dying."

"It's incredibly difficult seeing patients die day after day after day," she said. And after a patient dies, the hospital must "refill their beds as quickly as they emptied."

-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos