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.


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UK reports highest daily cases ever

The United Kingdom reported 93,045 new cases in the last 24 hours, breaking a daily record for the third day in a row.

The total number of cases over the last week now stands at 477,229, a 38.6% increase from the previous week.

-ABC News' Guy Davies


Rockettes canceled due to breakthrough cases

Friday's four Radio City Rockettes shows have been canceled due to breakthrough COVID-19 cases in the New York City production.

Plans for future shows haven't been determined.

-ABC News' Aaron Katersky


CDC studies find schools can test kids rather than quarantine 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday endorsed a practice in schools called “test-to-stay,” which allows unvaccinated kids and staff to test instead of quarantine after being exposed to COVID-19.

The CDC says the practice can be employed in addition to other mitigation measures, such as vaccination and at least 3-feet of physical distance among students wearing masks.

The new guidance follows two studies out of Los Angeles County, California, and Lake County, Illinois. Both studies found no significant transmission in school when test-to-stay was used.

The studies were conducted before the omicron variant was detected in the U.S.

-ABC News' Anne Flaherty


Hospitals stretched thin in Wisconsin, Michigan

In Wisconsin, only 4% of ICU beds are available.

"This is getting really scary," Dr. Jamie Hess, an emergency physician at the University of Wisconsin, told ABC News.

"We're really reaching a crisis point where we have more patients to take care of then we have beds in the hospital or staff to care for them," Hess said.

Michigan has been struggling through a similar surge for nearly three months, with the state reporting more than 6,500 new cases each day. On average, more than 500 patients are being admitted to hospitals each day.

"Where we are right now feels a lot like the first surge back in March of 2020," Erin Dicks, a nurse manager at MICU Henry Ford Hospital, told ABC News. "We don't have enough beds to be able to manage this."

Dicks said so many patients are young.

"I think one of the biggest frustrating pieces for my staff is that they look at this as, this is preventable -- people don't have to die here," Dicks said.

-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos


Over 67,000 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in US amid winter surge

With winter closing in and COVID-19 cases on the rise, hospitals across the United States are once again facing the pressures of caring for thousands of patients.

More than 67,000 people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 nationwide, according to federal data.

Rebecca Long, lead nurse in a COVID-19 intensive care unit at Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, told ABC News that she and her team "literally do not have any ICU beds" available.

"I don't want anyone else's family member or loved one to have to be in the position where we say, like, we can't help you because we don't have the resources," Long said. "As health care providers, all we want to do is help people and we can't because we physically can't."

Dr. Kyle McCarty, medical director of emergency services at both HSHS St. Mary's and HSHS St. Vincent hospitals in Green Bay, Wisconsin, told ABC News that health care workers are feeling burned out after "being asked to do more with less."

"We're exhausted by the knowledge that we are the duct tape that is preventing a complete collapse of the health care system," McCarty said. "There's a national shortage of hospital staff, which is making it difficult to take care of patients the way that we want it. There aren't enough inpatient beds for the patients that need to be admitted to the hospital."

"This is a call for reinforcements, not a warning to stay away, because we don't want this to be the new normal," he added. "If we can recruit more health care teammates, it doesn't have to be."

-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos