COVID-19 updates: Elizabeth Warren tests positive
The senator says she's experiencing "mild symptoms."
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:
Southwest CEO tests positive after Senate hearing
Southwest CEO Gary Kelly has tested positive for COVID-19 after testifying at a Senate hearing Wednesday alongside other airline executives, a Southwest spokesperson said.
He was not masked during the hearing.
Kelly, who is fully vaccinated and boosted, has mild symptoms, the spokesperson said.
ABC News reached out to the airlines whose executives were next to Kelly at the hearing.
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby and Delta operations chief John Laughter tested negative Friday.
American Airlines CEO Doug Parker plans to test Friday afternoon, according to the airline. Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, said she will test Friday and in the coming days.
Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell told ABC News that committee members will "follow the protocols" for testing.
-ABC News' Mina Kaji, Allison Pecorin and Sam Sweeney
National Guard to help Ohio with strained hospitals
More than 4,700 COVID-19 patients are in Ohio hospitals, the highest number of all of 2021 -- and hospitalization numbers are quickly approaching an all-time high, Gov. Mike DeWine's office said.
DeWine said he's calling up 1,050 National Guard members to help overwhelmed hospitals beginning on Monday.
Vaccine timeline pushed back for kids under 5
The potential timeline for when children under 5 may have an authorized vaccine is now being pushed back.
Data for a two-shot vaccine was initially expected by the end of the year, but now Pfizer/BioNTech say they hope to have data with a third shot in the first half of 2022.
Pfizer/BioNTech said they "will amend the clinical study evaluating the safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine in children 6 months to under 5 years of age. The study will now include evaluating a third dose of 3 µg at least two months after the second dose of the two-dose series to provide high levels of protection in this young age group."
An early look into the study data suggested that the two doses at a smaller volume was not as effective for kids ages 2 to 5 as it was for the 16 to 25 population, so scientists are going to add a third dose and see if the vaccine is as effective. There were no safety issues reported in the early data analysis.
Pfizer/BioNTech added in a statement, “The decision to evaluate a third dose of 3 µg for children 6 months to under 5 years of age reflects the companies’ commitment to carefully select the right dose to maximize the risk-benefit profile. If the three-dose study is successful, Pfizer and BioNTech expect to submit data to regulators to support an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for children 6 months to under 5 years of age in the first half of 2022.”
-ABC News' Eric M. Strauss
Americans in their 30s have highest case rate
Americans in their 30s are accounting for the highest case rate of any age group, according to federal data.
The U.S. is now reporting nearly 120,000 new cases each day. The daily case average has surged by nearly 86.3% since late October, according to federal data.
Thirty-three states, as well as Washington, D.C., and New York City, have seen at least a 10% jump in daily cases over the last two weeks.
New Hampshire currently holds the nation's highest case rate, followed by Rhode Island, Maine, Wisconsin, Connecticut and Massachusetts, according to federal data.
-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos
England to lift travel ban on southern African nations
British Transport Secretary Grant Schapps announced Tuesday that England will remove all southern African nations from its travel red list.
After the omicron variant was first discovered in South Africa and Botswana in November, several countries around the world, including England and the United States, imposed travel bans on a swath of nations in southern Africa.
The World Health Organization warned that blanket travel bans will not prevent the international spread of omicron, deemed a "variant of concern," and that restrictions place a heavy burden on lives and livelihoods.
The countries of Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe will be taken off England's travel red list on Wednesday at 4 a.m. GMT, according to Schapps, who noted that all current testing measures remain in place.
"As always, we keep all our travel measures under review and we may impose new restrictions should there be a need to do so to protect public health," Schapps wrote on Twitter Tuesday.
Despite the travel bans, the heavily mutated variant has taken a foothold in London. British Health Secretary Sajid Javid told Parliament on Monday that omicron accounts for more than 44% of COVID-19 infections in the U.K. capital and it's expected to become the dominant variant there by Wednesday, overtaking the highly contagious delta variant.
Addressing Parliament again on Tuesday, the health secretary called omicron "a grave threat" and said the "race" to get as many people vaccinated and boosted "is new national mission."
"Scientists have never seen a COVID-19 variant that’s capable of spreading so rapidly," Javid said.
-ABC News' Christine Theodorou