you probably were sleeping. we ll give you the highlights. welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. this is early start. it s monday, march 15th. 5:00 a.m. here in new york. we re so close we can taste freedom and yet so far. one in five americans have received at least one dose of a covid vaccine. since friday, the u.s. has hit three of the largest single day jumps in vaccinations. scenes like this can set us back. this is miami beach. a lot of people out there but few masks. spring break could trigger a surge in cases and saint patrick s day is also worrying. we ve got too many people coming. we ve got too many people coming who are just acting out and we have covid at the same time. and people are flying again. air travel hit a new pandemic era record. new tsa figures show more than 1.3 million people were screened on friday. the highest number in a year. duke university under grads are in a stay in place orders. more than 80 students are in
border. a crisis at the border starting to take shape. a surge of migrants crossing. fema stepping in to help with the more than 3,200 migrant children being housed in customs and border facilities as of last week. that figure is a new record. republicans are seizing on it. in a matter of hours, kevin mckathy and other congressional republicans will be at the border in texas. they are calling it a crisis. democrats are calling it a challenge that they inherited from the previous administration. that s where we start. garrett haake in el paso, texas, where a group of house republicans, including minority leader mccarthy, making the border visit. i want to bring in the former white house deputy chief of staff for operations under president obama. jacob is with us in california. we know that part of fema s role we don t have jacob yet. garrett is in el paso. congressional republicans making a visit to the border in a matter of hours. this visit coming as congress preparing to
the tv special was filmed in august, one last time and evening with tony bennett and lady gaga. bennett and his family revealed he is suffering from alzheimer s. that was great. to be where those are the five things to know. more on the stories at cnn and cnn.com and download the 5 things podcast, go to cnn.com/5things. the transportation security administration reports air travel hit a new pandemic high as people return from the thanksgiving holiday. the agency screened more than 2.4 million people sunday, that is more than double the number that they saw on that same day last year. cnn s pete muntean live at reagan national airport with more. that is a lot of people and probably telling us something about what the christmastime is going to look like as well. reporter: brianna, the numbers are huge. no major issues at the airline like were feared going into this