COVID-19 updates: Classes in Chicago canceled for 4th day
Chicago Public Schools has been in talks with teachers over COVID-19 safety.
As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.4 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 837,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 62.5% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Israel approves 4th vaccine dose for people 60 and over
Israel's Ministry of Health approved a fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccine for health care workers and people over 60 years old, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said.
"Israel will once again be pioneering the global vaccination effort," Bennett said at a press conference in Jerusalem. "Omicron is not Delta -- it’s a different ball-game altogether."
Fourth doses will be administered four months after booster shots, Bennett said.
ABC News' Jordana Miller
About 126,000 Americans hospitalized with COVID-19
An estimated 126,000 Americans are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, according to new data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Of those patients, about one-sixth -- or 21,000 -- are in intensive care units.
The spread of the omicron variant is pushing the U.S. closer to the hospitalization record set last winter when 140,000 patients with the virus were hospitalized .
Meanwhile, the country is averaging 554,000 new COVID-19 cases every day, a five-fold increase from a month ago, federal data shows.
Over the last week, the U.S. has reported about 3.88 million COVID-19 infections, which averages out to about six Americans testing positive every second.
-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos