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:
White House delays enforcement of workforce vaccine-or-test mandate
Enforcement of the Biden administration's vaccine-or-test mandate for private companies with more 100 employees will be delayed by a month, officials said.
The Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced the change Saturday, a day after a federal appeals court lifted a stay on the rule, allowing it to proceed.
Previously, the mandate required companies to enforce masks among unvaccinated employees beginning Dec. 6, and either see proof of vaccination or begin testing workers weekly by Jan. 4.
The new deadlines for compliance are now Jan. 10 and Feb. 9, respectively, OSHA said.
-ABC News' Anne Flaherty
New York state sets another daily case record
Nearly 22,000 positive COVID-19 test results were reported in New York state in the last 24 hours, according to Gov. Kathy Hochul's office -- breaking a single-day record set the day before.
The 21,908 positive COVID-19 test results are out of 290,930 results reported -- for a 7.53% positivity rate.
Demand for testing also continues to rise, with about 27,000 more people getting tested on Friday.
"This is not like the beginning of the pandemic. We are prepared for the winter surge because we have the tools at our disposal," Hochul said in a statement. "Getting vaccinated, getting the booster and wearing a mask are critical to avoiding getting seriously ill from COVID-19, so don't take a chance."
-ABC News' Joshua Hoyos
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
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.
Confirmed omicron cases in the U.K. now total 24,968.
-ABC News' Rashid Haddou
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