Intensive care bed units left. our hospitals have converted other spaces to be used as contingency icu beds. those are filling up, too. reporter: the toll on the nation already steep and rising. average daily covid deaths now topping 1,300. more than doubling since mid-august. there are growing concerns about rising cases among children who are already being hospitalized with covid at the highest rate in more than a year according to cdc data. most either unvaccinated or under the age of 12 and unable to get vaccinated. the numbers have been three or four times what we were seeing last winter at its peak. reporter: school districts in two counties in northern florida shutting down for several days, either due to a spike in covid cases or quarantine-related staffing shortages or both. neither district mandates masks. governor ron desantis has banned school mask mandates in the sunshine state. [ chanting ] reporter: still, volusia
Several days citing a spike in covid cases or quarantine related staffing shortages or both. neither district mandates masks. that s the problem. if you don t have masks, your kids have to go home, which one would you prefer. exactly. if you want to keep the kids in school, you have to take precautions. thank you for the reporting. top of the hour now. victor is off today. just in to cnn, the white house says president biden will go do louisiana on friday to survey the damage from hurricane ida. the national guard says it has rescued nearly 400 people at this point. here s some new video for you. this is a cow stuck in a tree. rescue trues are trying to get the cow out. this is up with of the strange things after a storm like this. almost a million customers are without pow r across louisiana.