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:
US cases up 45% in the last month
The U.S. is now reporting nearly 118,000 new cases each day -- up by 45% in the last month, according to federal data.
Daily COVID-19-related hospital admissions have leapt by 46% in the last month.
Maine and New Hampshire are now averaging more new cases than at any other point in the pandemic, according to federal data.
New Hampshire currently holds the nation's highest case rate, followed by Rhode Island, Maine, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos
South Africa sees new record case high
South Africa, one of the first countries to detect omicron, reported a record high of 26,976 new cases on Wednesday.
Just 26.09% of South Africa's residents are fully vaccinated, according to Africa CDC.
-ABC News' Christine Theodorou
George Washington University cancels events, moves exams online
George Washington University is joining Princeton, Cornell and NYU by canceling all events and moving exams online.
George Washington officials said there's "a significant increase" in cases, and while people are not severely sick, "it is critical that we act to limit the further spread."
-ABC News' Michelle Stoddart
Fenway Park to reopen as booster site
Boston's historic baseball stadium Fenway Park, which transformed into a mass vaccination site last winter, is expected to reopen its doors as a booster shot location in January, Red Sox officials told ABC News.
The Red Sox are working with the city and the governor's office to finalize the plans, Red Sox spokeswoman Zineb Curran said.
-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos
Judge rejects challenge to New York City's vaccine mandate for public school employees
A federal judge in New York has again declined to impose a preliminary injunction on the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for public school employees.
The public school employees have said they have religious objections to the COVID-19 vaccine. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York previously ordered a citywide panel to reconsider their requests for religious accommodation. Most of the plaintiffs were denied a second time and sought the injunction to prevent their termination.
In an order filed Tuesday, Judge Valerie Caproni found New York City's vaccine mandate to be rational, saying: "The Court has no facts before it on which it could conclude that the Citywide Panel’s process was irrational in any way or infected with hostility to religion."
The decision comes a week after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up a petition from health care workers who opposed New York state's vaccine mandate on religious grounds. As long as mandates are generally applied and do not single out a particular religion, the courts -- at all levels -- have allowed them to stand.
-ABC News' Aaron Katersky