Coronavirus Watch: Is omicron the final wave? Fauci says it's an 'open question'

It's too soon to know whether the omicron variant will be the final phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci said. 

There are two ways for a pandemic to end: the infectious disease is eradicated, or it becomes endemic, which means it still exists without being disruptive to society, like chickenpox.

"If you look at the history of infectious diseases, we’d only eradicated one infectious disease in man and that’s smallpox," said Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, at the World Economic Forum. "That’s not going to happen with this virus."

It's Tuesday, and this is Coronavirus Watch from the Paste BN Network. Here's more news to know:

• New York City's public schools are "exploring" a remote learning option amid the omicron surge of the coronavirus, said Chancellor David C. Banks at a news conference Tuesday.
• In Australia, 74 people died due to COVID-19 on Tuesday, the largest single-day tally in the country since the start of the pandemic.
• Tickets to the upcoming Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Beijing won't be sold because of the "current grave and complicated situation of the COVID-19 pandemic,'' officials in China said Monday.
• New York is the third state to report more COVID-19 cases in 2022 than in all of 2020, a Paste BN analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. Hawaii and Vermont have also surpassed their 2020 counts.

Today's numbers: The U.S. has recorded more than 66 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and more than 851,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Global totals: More than 331 million cases and over 5.5 million deaths. More than 208 million Americans – 62.9% – are fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

– Ryan Miller, Paste BN Breaking News Reporter, @RyanW_Miller