Chicago teachers voted Wednesday to accept the deal made by the union and city to re start in-person classes.

The deal ended the five-day standoff after the union voted to switch to remote learning due to the omicron surge.

Union leaders made a tentative agreement on Monday and urged teachers to back the deal despite frustration that the district wouldn't grant demands for widespread coronavirus testing or commit to districtwide remote learning during a COVID-19 surge.

The final agreement will expand COVID-19 testing and create standards to switch schools to remote learning.

The deal also resulted in the purchase of KN95 masks for students and teachers and bigger incentives to attract substitute teachers. The city also agreed to give teachers unpaid leave related to the pandemic.

The U.S. Army released an update on the vaccine status of its members.

As of Jan. 11, 96% of members are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and 97% have at least one dose, according to the Army.

All armed service members are mandated to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Around 18,000 members remain unvaccinated, the data showed.

The Army has chosen not to discharge unvaccinated soldiers but instead "flag" them so they’re not promoted and are not allowed to re-enlist.

"To date, Army commanders have relieved a total of six active-duty leaders, including two battalion commanders, and issued 2,994 general officer written reprimands to soldiers for refusing the vaccination order," the Army said in a news release.

-ABC News' Luis Martinez

The U.S. government has purchased an additional 500,000 doses of Evusheld, AstraZeneca's monoclonal antibody drug, to be given before exposure to COVID-19, the company announced. This is on top of the 700,000 Evusheld doses already purchased.

White House officials previously said over 500,000 doses would be stockpiled in January and "significantly more" would be purchased by March."

Evusheld was authorized in December 2021 and is the first monoclonal therapy meant to be used in advance of an eligible person's exposure to COVID-19.

However, it's not meant for a wide group of people: this therapy is only authorized for immunocompromised people who may not have developed an optimal immune response to their vaccine. This therapy is also for people with a history of severe adverse reactions to a COVID-19 vaccine and thus aren't recommended to get vaccinated.

Evusheld is not authorized as a way to treat COVID-19 after testing positive.

-ABC News' Sasha Pezenik

More than 15 million new COVID-19 cases were reported globally last week, according to the World Health Organization.

"By far the most cases reported in a single week, and we know this is an underestimate," WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday.

He said this "huge spike" is driven by omicron.

"While omicron causes less severe disease than delta, it remains a dangerous virus, particularly for those who are unvaccinated," Tedros warned.

WHO officials said new vaccines may be needed for different variants, and until those vaccines are developed, the current vaccines may need to be updated.

-ABC News' Christine Theodorou

The United Kingdom has launched a new advertising campaign that urges pregnant women who have not yet received a COVID-19 vaccine or booster shot to do so as soon as possible.

Testimonies of pregnant women who have had the shots will be played out in ads across U.K. radio stations and on social media starting Monday. The new campaign urges pregnant women "don't wait to take the vaccine" and highlights the risks of COVID-19 to both mother and baby as well as the benefits of getting vaccinated, according to a press release from the U.K. Department of Health and Social Care.

The press release cited the latest data from the U.K. Health Security Agency that suggests COVID-19 vaccination is safe for pregnant women and provides strong protection against the virus for both mother and baby. The press release also cited data from the U.K. Obstetric Surveillance System that shows more than 96% of pregnant women hospitalized with COVID-19 symptoms between May and October 2021 were unvaccinated, and a third of them required respiratory support. Around one in five women who are hospitalized with COVID-19 need to be delivered preterm to help them recover, and one in five of their babies need care in the neonatal unit.

"Getting a COVID-19 vaccine is one of the most important things a pregnant woman can do this year to keep herself and her baby as safe from this virus as possible," Lucy Chappell, chief scientific adviser to the U.K. Department of Health and Social Care, said in a statement Monday. "We have extensive evidence now to show that the vaccines are safe and that the risks posed by COVID-19 are far greater."