As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.6 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 883,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 63.7% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Utah Sen. Mitt Romney tested positive for COVID-19 Friday, his office said.
"He is currently asymptomatic and will be isolating and working remotely for the recommended period of time," his office said.
His wife, Ann Romney, has tested negative for the virus. Both are fully vaccinated and boosted, his office said.
About 60 million American households have ordered 240 million free at-home COVID rapid tests since they became available on Jan. 18, White House officials said Friday.
The Biden administration plans to ultimately mail 1 billion free at-home rapid tests to Americans.
Additionally, the federal government has sent out "tens of millions of masks” since Biden announced last week that the government would provide 400 million N95 masks for free at pharmacies and community health centers across the country, White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
-ABC News' Ben Gittleson
Federal data shows that the U.S. is now reporting an average of almost 600,000 new cases per day -- a nearly 25% drop in the last two weeks, according to federal data.
Just nine states are reporting at least a 10% increase in cases: Alaska, Idaho, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Washington and West Virginia.
All other states and territories are reporting a decrease in new cases or are at a plateau.
Nationwide, hospitalization rates are also declining, according to federal data. Just under 145,000 COVID-19-positive patients are currently in U.S. hospitals, down from 160,000 patients reported last week.
It's not clear how many of these patients were admitted to the hospital for COVID-19 and how many coincidentally tested positive for the virus after they were admitted for other reasons.
The national daily death average now stands at nearly 2,300 -- a 30% jump in the last two weeks.
-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos
San Francisco officials are ending indoor mask mandates for “stable cohorts” where everyone is up to date on vaccinations, like people in an office or gym setting.
The city's health officer Dr. Susan Philip called this change, which begins Feb. 1, doable due to San Francisco's highly vaccinated and boosted population.
"Other COVID-19 safety guidelines in these settings remain in effect and include a means for others who do not or cannot meet the vaccination requirements to join the group with the added safety of showing a negative test and wearing a mask," San Francisco's health department said.
-ABC News' Matt Fuhrman
More than 635 million students around the world remain affected by full or partial school closures due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), which described the scale of education lost as "nearly insurmountable."
"In March, we will mark two years of COVID-19-related disruptions to global education. Quite simply, we are looking at a nearly insurmountable scale of loss to children’s schooling," Robert Jenkins, UNICEF chief of education, said in a statement Monday. "While the disruptions to learning must end, just reopening schools is not enough. Students need intensive support to recover lost education. Schools must also go beyond places of learning to rebuild children’s mental and physical health, social development and nutrition."
As Monday marks the International Day of Education, UNICEF warned that many schoolchildren, especially the younger and more marginalized, have lost basic numeracy and literacy skills since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. In low- and middle-income countries, learning losses to school closures have left up to 70% of 10-year-olds unable to read or understand a simple text, up from 53% prior to the pandemic, according to UNICEF.
In Ethiopia, primary school children are estimated to have learned between 30% to 40% of the math they would have acquired if it had been a normal school year, UNICEF said.
In South Africa, schoolchildren are between 75% and a full school year behind where they should be. Some 400,000 to 500,000 students reportedly dropped out of school altogether between March 2020 and July 2021, according to UNICEF.
Across Brazil, one in 10 students aged 10 to 15 reported they are not planning to return to classrooms once schools reopen. In several Brazilian states, around three in four children in second grade are off-track in reading, up from one in two children prior to the pandemic, UNICEF said.
Meanwhile, learning losses have also been observed across the United States. In Texas, for example, two-thirds of children in third grade tested below their grade level in math in 2021, compared to half of children in 2019, according to UNICEF.
