captioning sponsored by cbs o donnell: tonight, president biden tours the devastation caused by catastrophic flooding in the northeast, claiming his infrastructure plan will safeguard against future storms. the president consoles storm victims, promising to help communities rebuild, blaming climate change for the extreme weather. the threat is here. it s not going to get any better. o donnell: plus, breaking news out of louisiana as the health department revokes licenses for seven nursing homes, it says failed to protect its residents. covid milestone: the u.s. hits a staggering 40 million confirmed covid cases as infections among children reach the highest levels yet. women protest the new hard-line
reporter: the governor of new york right now is in this neighborhood touring the damage, talking to families. one of the concerns she has heard and that we ve heard throughout the day are families with young school-aged children who are about to start school under these conditions, norah. o donnell: mola lenghi, thank you so much. and we want to turn now to the coronavirus pandemic, because we learned today that president biden on thursday, will unveil a new six-point plan to fight the virus, this as the u.s. has hit a staggering milestone of more than 40 million confirmed coronavirus cases. now, the number of americans being treated in hospitals is more than triple what it was last september. cbs david begnaud goes in depth tonight. reporter: today, the american academy of pediatrics reported the most covid cases among children since the pandemic started, more than 250,000 last week. that topped the 200,000 cases reported the week before. texas hit a record for pediatric covid
ill patients who they don t have the equipment or the specialists to treat here. get me on the phone with a radiologist. reporter: dr. kakli s persistence paid off, though. he was finally able to transfer a cancer patient to houston. we re all relieved and happy that we finally got a patient out after four days. like, that s where the bar is right now. like, we got him out eventually. reporter: i just checked on that patient. her daughter told us she has blood clots in her brain and in her heart tonight. listen, here s the bottom line: houston hospitals are full of covid patients and it s to the point where they re having to tell hospitals just one town over, i m sorry, we can t accept your patient. we can t help you because we re full. norah. o donnell: your reporting is always a wake-up call. david begnaud, thank you. in afghanistan, the taliban announced that they had formed an acting government, which doesn t include any women and is made up of leaders with ties to the
nearly 350 children hospitalized statewide. unfortunately, here in the south, where we failed to implement mask mandates in addition to vaccine mandates, as school started to open, we re now seeing a lot of kids and teachers become infected with covid. she s maxed out on these medications. reporter: hospitals, particularly in southern states, are facing a crush of new adult covid cases, too. covid is kicking humanity s ass. every time a covid patient comes and checks in, it s like, (exasperated) damn it. reporter: dr. hasan kakli works in the e.r. here at el campo memorial hospital, in texas, about 70 miles southwest of houston. so 20 patients in the hospital. only one does not have covid. reporter: wow. that s how it s been. past three weeks. reporter: dr. kakli and his staff aren t just battling covid. uh-huh, bye- bye. no, they don t have any beds. reporter: they re on the phone, daily trying to find empty i.c.u. beds for critically
good tuesday morning. i m erica hill. the united states passing another covid milestone. 40 million cases in the united states and there is currently no sign of that number slowing down. and just to put it in perspective, more than 4 million of those cases were reported in just the last four weeks. the seven-day average of new coronavirus cases, 300% higher than it was at this same time labor day. after last year. tomorrow president biden we are learning is set to deliver a major speech in the next phase of the pandemic recovery. according to sources, he ll layout key steps on what the white house and the federal government can take, key steps that can be taken next in the fight against the virus. the speech will also contain multiple components related to schools, private companies and federal employees. let s get straight to the white house, cnn correspondent phil mattingly is standing by. phil, the president set to tour damage in the northeast. what more do we know, though,