Several hundred White House staffers have already been vaccinated against COVID-19 by the White House medical team, White House officials said, confirming a report from Axios.

The White House hopes to vaccinate all in-person staff in the next few weeks, officials said.

ABC News’ Molly Nagle contributed to this report

The United States is seeing improvements in COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations. In the last two weeks, the country's seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases has declined by 33.1%, according to ABC News' analysis of data compiled by The COVID Tracking Project, a volunteer-run effort to track the U.S. outbreak.

On Monday, Missouri reported the fewest number of new cases since September, while South Dakota reported the lowest number of new cases since July.

COVID-19 hospitalizations are also declining nationwide. The COVID Tracking Project said the number of people hospitalized with the disease in the U.S. is currently at its lowest since Dec. 14.

Hospitalizations are even trending down in California, which has more COVID-19 patients in hospitals than any other U.S. state.

ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulous contributed to this report.

Colombian President Ivan Duque announced Tuesday that Defense Minister Carlos Holmes Trujilo died in the early morning hours from COVID-19 complications. He was 69.

"I can't express the pain that I have," Duque said in a statement while conveying his condolences to Trujilo's family.

Colombia has the third-highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Americas, behind the United States and Brazil, according to the World Health Organization.

ABC News’ Christine Theodorou contributed to this report.

Europe's longest land border, spanning more than 1,000 miles, has closed for the first time since World War II.

Sweden's temporary ban on entry from neighboring Norway went into effect Monday and will last until at least Feb. 14. The Swedish government has also extended an entry ban from the United Kingdom and Denmark until the same date.

The move comes amid concerns over a new, more contagious variant of the novel coronavirus that was first identified in the U.K. and has since spread to Norway's capital and the surrounding area.

On Saturday, shortly before Sweden announced the new travel ban, the Norwegian government imposed strict new lockdown measures for Oslo and nine neighboring municipalities due to an outbreak of the variant.

ABC News' Clark Bentson 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.