COVID updates: Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin tests positive
He said he has mild symptoms and will be quarantining for five days.
As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.4 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 825,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 62% 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:
UCLA pulls out of bowl game
UCLA said its football team has pulled out of Tuesday night's San Diego County Credit Union Holiday Bowl due to COVID-19.
UCLA was set to play North Carolina State.
-ABC News' Matt Fuhrman
Greece sees record single-day increase
Greece reported 21,657 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday -- a record 133% increase from the 9,284 new cases reported on Monday, according to government data.
Eighty-five percent of COVID-19 patients in Greece's hospitals are not vaccinated.
-ABC News' Christine Theodorou
US cases, hospitalizations, deaths expected to rise
Forecast models used by the CDC suggest cases, hospitalizations and deaths will rise over the next four weeks.
According to the models, the U.S. death toll could reach 862,900 by Jan. 22.
Nationally, estimates suggest between 8,700 and 20,800 Americans could be admitted to the hospital each day by Jan. 10.
These forecasts are from the COVID-19 Forecast Hub at UMass Amherst, where a team monitors and combines forecasting models from the nation’s top researchers. The team then creates an ensemble -- displayed like a hurricane forecast spaghetti plot -- usually with a wide cone of uncertainty.
-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos, Brian Hartman
Hugh Jackman tests positive, The Music Man cancels performances
Hugh Jackman, who has been starring in The Music Man on Broadway, tweeted that he tested positive for COVID-19 Tuesday morning.
"My symptoms are like a cold -- I have a scratchy throat and a bit of a runny nose," Jackman said in an Instagram video. "But I'm fine and I'm just going to do everything I can to get better ASAP. And as soon as I'm cleared, I'll be back on stage."
The Music Man tweeted that all performances are canceled through Jan. 1 and that Jackman will be back in the show on Jan. 6.
Secretary of Education says students should be in classrooms despite omicron variant
Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said Thursday that students should be back in classrooms after winter break despite the surge of the highly transmissible omicron variant.
"If you're fully staffed to provide a safe school environment, students should be in the classroom full-time, every day," he told "Good Morning America's" Whit Johnson.
"We've done this before. We did it before vaccines were available. If you recall, we re-opened schools this year right at the height of the delta variant," Cardona said.
Several school districts across the country said they will require negative tests from students before they can enter classrooms, but Cardona said he doesn't know if that's necessary.
"I do believe all students should have access to testing, but I don't know that it needs to be required," he said.
He continued, "We need to make sure they get into class safely and stay in the classroom."
-ABC News' Molly Nagle