For the first time in over a decade, Chicago’ s public school teachers have a new contract without a strike or threat of a walkout.

Classes in Chicago were canceled for a third consecutive day amid an ongoing fight with the teachers union over remote learning and other COVID-19 safety protocols.

Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey, who has said the union wants an agreement, said holding off on locking out educators is an encouraging step. Such a move, if approved by the union's house of delegates, could shut down remote learning across the roughly 340,000-student district. School officials and the union reported weekend progress on issues including contact tracing and ventilation. But the union says those measures don’t go far enough and without more protections, remote learning is safest. District officials haven't said when high school students will return.

U.S. hospital intensive care units in many parts of the country are straining under record numbers of COVID-19 patients. An Associated Press analysis of federal hospital data shows that since November, the share of U.S. hospitals nearing the breaking point has doubled. The state’s Department of Health and Human Services issued a mandate on Saturday pausing all athletics at the school. — Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force, on grappling with COVID-19 deniers in the White House. ___Find AP’s full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic