The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a federal transportation mask mandate Friday night which will be effective starting Feb. 1.

The mandate states that people traveling within or out of the United States must wear face masks while on conveyances and at transportation hubs to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

This includes airplanes, ships, ferries, trains, subways, buses, taxis and ride-shares, as well as subway stations, airports and other transportation hubs.

Drivers, conductors, and other workers involved in the operation of conveyances must also wear masks at all times, the CDC says.

"Conveyance operators must also require all persons onboard to wear masks when boarding, disembarking, and for the duration of travel," the mandate states. "Operators of transportation hubs must require all persons to wear a mask when entering or on the premises of a transportation hub."

There have been more COVID-19 cases reported globally in the past two weeks than during the first six months of the pandemic, according to the World Health Organization.

Almost exactly a year ago, there were fewer than 100 confirmed cases of the virus outside of China, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted during a media briefing Friday. This week, the number of reported cases globally surpassed 100 million.

"Now, vaccines are giving us another window of opportunity to bring the pandemic under control. We must not squander it," Tedros said.

At the same time, Tedros warned that vaccine hoarding will be a "catastrophic moral failing" that will ultimately "keep the pandemic burning" and hinder economic recovery.

His comments come after the European Union publicly fought with AstraZeneca this week over how many doses it can expect of the drugmaker's COVID-19 vaccine. After regulators approved the vaccine Friday, the EU enacted an export restriction on doses produced in the bloc. WHO officials called the move "concerning" and part of a "worrying trend."

"Vaccine nationalism might serve short-term political goals, but it's ultimately short-sighted and self-defeating. We will not end the pandemic anywhere until we end it everywhere," Tedros said. "My message to governments is to vaccinate your health workers and older people, and share excess doses with COVAX, so other countries can do the same."

ABC News' Kirit Radia contributed to this report.

The CDC is extending its moratorium on housing evictions through March 31, citing the health threat it poses.

The order had been set to expire on Jan. 31.

“Keeping people in their homes and out of congregate settings -- like shelters -- is a key step in helping to stop the spread of COVID-19,” the CDC said in a statement.

ABC News’ Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.

At Friday’s White House press briefing, Dr. Anthony Fauci said the United Kingdom variant will likely become more “dominant” in the U.S. toward the end of March or early April.

There are 379 confirmed cases across 29 states of the B117 strain of the coronavirus, according to CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky.

Fauci indicated that the evolving nature of the virus is something the medical community will have to continue dealing with going forward.

“Even though the long-range effect in the sense of severe disease is still handled reasonably well by the vaccines, this is a wake-up call to all of us, that we will be dealing, as the virus uses its devices to evade pressure, particularly immunological pressure, that we will continue to see the evolution of mutants,” he said.

Fauci also indicated that the fight to contain the new variants will impact the vaccine response.

“We, as a government, the companies, all of us that are in this together, will have to be nimble to be able to just adjust readily to make versions of the vaccine that actually are specifically directed towards whatever mutation is actually prevalent at any given time,” he said.

ABC News’ Matthew Vann contributed to this report.

Forty people in Gambia who tested positive for COVID-19 over the past week have refused to self-isolate or have escaped treatment centers, according to the country's health ministry, which vowed to reveal the identities of those flouting public health regulations.

Officials are also aware of a "large number of travelers who recently arrived" in the small West African nation from countries considered COVID-19 hotspots and "have refused to abide to official protocols and/or report to the health authorities for the mandatory test upon arrival," said Modou Njai, director of health promotion and education at Gambia's Ministry of Health.

"The Ministry continues to treat these matters with utmost and grave concern and thus, the Ministry is hereby giving an order and ultimatum to all those concerned, that they are required to report themselves to the health authorities with immediate effect and failure of which will lead to serious consequences, including the publication of names and identifying information of all those at large," Njai said in a statement Tuesday.

"The Ministry would like to stress that this serious and ruthless misconduct will no longer be condoned under any circumstances," he added. "Anyone found not willing to cooperate with COVID-19 regulations will have their names and identifying information published on the media and thereafter, drastic measures will be taken against anyone that is non-compliant."

Gambia, home to some 2.3 million people, has confirmed 4,008 cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, including at least 128 deaths, according to the latest data from the health ministry.