COVID-19 updates: Elizabeth Warren tests positive

The senator says she's experiencing "mild symptoms."

ByMorgan Winsor, Emily Shapiro, Ivan Pereira, and Meredith Deliso
Last Updated: December 20, 2021, 12:51 AM EST

As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.3 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 806,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

About 61.4% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Latest headlines:

Here's how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Dec 18, 2021, 3:18 PM EST

President Biden to announce 'next steps' in COVID-19 response on Tuesday

President Joe Biden will deliver remarks this Tuesday on the country's fight against COVID-19 and "announce new steps" the administration will take amid the growing spread of the omicron variant, White House officials said.

The president will address steps the administration is taking "to help communities in need of assistance, while also issuing a stark warning of what the winter will look like for Americans that choose to remain unvaccinated," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Twitter Saturday afternoon.

The speech will come as millions of Americans prepare to travel and gather for the holidays, and as concerns about the omicron variant continue in the U.S. and around the world. 

-ABC News' Molly Nagle

Dec 18, 2021, 10:21 AM EST

Over 10,000 additional confirmed omicron cases in UK

An additional 10,059 confirmed cases of the omicron variant of COVID-19 have been reported across the U.K., according to the U.K. Health Security Agency's daily omicron overview on Saturday.

People receive a booster shot inside a COVID-19 pop-up vaccination site at Stamford Bridge in London, Dec, 18, 2021.
David Klein/Reuters

Confirmed omicron cases in the U.K. now total 24,968.

-ABC News' Rashid Haddou

Dec 17, 2021, 8:47 PM EST

Federal court allows Biden's workforce vaccine-or-test mandate to proceed

A federal appeals court reinstated the Biden administration's nationwide workplace vaccine mandate Friday.

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals dissolved the stay issued by the Fifth Circuit last month on the rule, which would require employees at private companies with over 100 workers to get vaccinated or tested regularly. 

The mandate "is an important step in curtailing the transmission of a deadly virus that has killed over 800,000 people in the United States, brought our healthcare system to its knees, forced businesses to shut down for months on end, and cost hundreds of thousands of workers their jobs," Judge Jane Stranch wrote in the opinion.

The rule, which was set to go into effect on Jan. 4, 2022, had been put on hold by the Fifth Circuit after it ruled that the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration didn’t have the legal authority to impose such a requirement on private businesses. 

The Labor Department had previously said it won’t move forward with enforcing its workplace mandate until the matter was resolved in court.

Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said Friday she plans to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to block the order.

-ABC News' Benjamin Siu and Anne Flaherty

Dec 17, 2021, 5:23 PM EST

Omicron could spread up to 3 times faster than delta, new analysis finds

The omicron variant could spread two to three times faster than delta, according to a new report from the Imperial College London COVID-19 response team.

The study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, also estimated that the risk of being reinfected with omicron is more than five times higher than that of delta. 

Data could change as more information on omicron's spread is gathered, though the study offers an early indication of how much more transmissible the new variant is compared to delta. 

-ABC News' Cheyenne Haslett, Dr. John Brownstein and Sony Salzman