COVID updates: New Zealand imposes restrictions amid omicron outbreak

Beginning Feb. 2, masks will no longer be required outdoors in France and public establishments will no longer have to apply quotas for receiving the public, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced Thursday. 

Working from home will be recommended but won't be mandatory as of Feb. 2, he said.

Beginning Feb. 16, nightclubs will reopen and standing consumption in bars will resume. 

Some epidemiologists have suggested a peak in cases has been reached. But the prime minister warned that in a normal year the flu generates 10,000 hospitalizations in the winter, while omicron is causing 10,000 hospitalizations every five days. 

Beginning Monday, the vaccine pass will come into force and will apply to everyone 16 and older. 

-ABC News' Ibtissem Guenfoud

The National Institutes of Health's COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines Panel is discouraging the use of monoclonal antibody treatments from Regeneron and Eli Lilly in its updated guidance Wednesday, as both have shown to be less effective against the predominant omicron variant.

Sotrovimab, from Vir Biotechnology and GlaxoSmithKline, is the only monoclonal antibody treatment for COVID-19 that has so far been shown to hold up against omicron. Last week, the federal government bought 600,000 more doses of the treatment, bringing the total to approximately 1 million, but supplies remain short while production ramps up.

Federal health officials had announced last month they would pause shipments of the treatments from Eli Lilly and Regeneron due to omicron efficacy concerns.

Monoclonal antibody therapy is recommended for nonhospitalized COVID-19 patients who are at high risk of getting severely ill.

-ABC News' Sasha Pezenik

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