good morning, everyone. it is saturday, october 22. i m amara walker. i m boris sanchez. you are live in the cnn newsroom. we are grateful you are starting your weekend with us. there is a growing health concern this morning for parents of young children as cases of a common respiratory virus known as rsv are surging across the country. listen to this. 74% of u.s. pediatric hospital beds are currently in use with capacity filling up faster than at any other point in the last two years of the coronavirus pandemic. cases are rising fast. during the first week of october, more than 4,400 rsv infections were detected by pcr tests, more than triple the levels were just two months ago, and some states are already in crisis mode. illinois only has 6% of pediatric icu beds left, and space is running out so fast at the connecticut children s hospital that they have had to treat patients in the hallway and in the play rooms. cnn s brian todd has more. the drive to the emergency r
we begin with an alarming outbreak that has some u.s. hospitals struggling. the common but potentially deadly respiratory virus called rsv is spreading rapidly among children. doctors telling cnn the spike is unprecedented for this time of year. cnn s brian todd has more on this troubling surge. the drive to the emergency room was really scary and really intense. reporter: this mother of a 5-year-old who was hospitalized with difficulty breathing told us of an anxious drive to the emergency room. things eventually had gotten worse since we were admitted. i have seen starting last night that he is progressively having a harder time breathing. rsv is one of the scariest infections in a child, especially when it s in your baby. so you will see your baby breathing really, really fast and you feel like there is nothing that you can do. reporter: around the country doctors are reporting a spike in cases of rsv, respiratory syncytial virus, a common respiratory illness tha
the past two years. 74% of pediatric hospital beds are full across the country. cnn s brian todd has more on this troubling surge. the drive to the emergency room was really scary and really intense. this mother of a 5-year-old, who was hospitalized with difficulty breathing told us of an anxious drive to the emergency room. things eventually got worse since we were admitted. i see starting last night he is progressively having a harder time breathing. rsv is one of the scariest infections in a child, especially when it s in your baby. you feel the baby breathing really, really fast, and you feel there s nothing you can do. reporter: around the country, a spike in rsv, a common respiratory illness that is occasionally severe in babies and young children. pediatric hospital beds are more full now than the past two years. some children s hospitals are overwhelmed, scrambling to make tents. one key reason is because kids are back in school after the pandemic. many chil
cast with 17 days to go until election day. at stake, control of both champ pwers of congress. the democrats have control now, but whether they can hold onto power is still in question. president biden says he s not going anywhere. at least he doesn t intend to. the reason i m not making a judgment about formally running or not running, as soon as i make that announcement, a whole series of regulations kick in and i have to treat myself as a candidate from that point on. i have not made that my formal decision, but it is my intention to run again. and we have time to make that decision. before that, his party needs to weather the midterms while acknowledging many are on shaky political ground. here s what i think. it s been back and forth with them ahead, us ahead, them ahead. pwaorlgt. and the polls have been all over the place. i think that we re going to see one more shift back to our side the closing days. part of his carefully crafted midterm strategy, tactically
and nowadays, you ve got something called a calculator, and these are just marvellous things. anybody that gets one of these, it does all the work for you. in other news. the investigation into the murder of nine year old olivia pratt korbel continues police are questioning a former drug dealer, who was the intended target of the attack. a think thank campaigning on behalf of low and middle income families has warned that a catastrophe is coming this winter , unless the government steps in to help with energy costs. search and rescue operations are under way in eastern ukraine, after russian missile strikes killed at least 20 people. and coming up this hour. we hear the remarkable story of the 66 year old man running inside a nine foot dragon costume in shropshire. good morning from denbigh high school in luton. we are here all day finding out how pupils at the school have got on in their gcses. like many others across their gcses. like many others across the country, tho