welcome to our viewers in the united states and all around the world. this is new day. the u.s. will cross 100 million vaccine shots since joe biden s inaug inauguration. that s 42 days ahead of the biden pledge. the u.s. is averaging 2.5 million coronavirus vaccines a day with 35% of americans partially or fully vaccinated. now, there are plenty of folks that noted that 100 million was a very low bar to begin with, but if you do the math going forward, at the pace we re going, we ll cross 200 million vaccinations within the first 100 days, and honestly, you would have been hard-pressed to find anyone that optimistic. but and this is hugely important there is concern this morning the u.s. may be on the verge of a new surge. the drop in hospitalizations, i want you to look at that graph. you can see it was going down steeply for weeks and weeks and weeks, but that decline has stopped. it s completely stalled right now. hospitalizations static and may be ticking up slight
here in new york and we begin this morning with the shootings in atlanta. a terrifying escalation of the anti-asian violence seen throughout the country and a reminder of the threat of violence women live with daily. robert aaron long charged with murder after he confessed to killing eight people, six asian women. authorities say long a 21-year-old white man told detectives he would go to massage parlours in the past, he blamed his sexual addiction. the cherokee county sheriff suggested long was, quote, attempting to take out that temptation. other officials and community leaders saying that narrative misses the mark. in this particular case where the victims were asian women we see the intersections of the racism, xenophobia and gender-based violence. you know, we ve also seen historically where news outlets and the police frame the story around the perpetrator and now we re hearing about the suspect in custody and we are hearing stories about how he was religious, he su
morning. a lot going on. yeah, there is. we have important new developments after the murder of eight people in georgia. six of them asian women. asian-americans on edge in the u.s. and you can understand why. authorities are noting the suspect claims the shootings were not racially motivated. but he says were the result of sexual addiction. a sheriff s deputy facing backlash for this description of the suspect s frame of mind. he understood the gravity of it. and he was pretty much fed up and had been kind of at the end of his rope and yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did. also new, russia responds to president biden calling vladimir putin a killer. mr. biden s comments were labeled as unprecedented. we ll have much more from the white house on that in a moment. but we want to begin with natasha chen with the very latest on the georgia investigation. good morning. reporter: good morning, erica. we re in cherokee county where the suspect is
come to the u.s. amid the growing crisis of children at the border. welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world, we have reports this morning from seoul, the pentagon, capitol hill and rome. this is early start, i m christine romans. and i m laura jarrett. it s wednesday, march 17th, it s 5:00 a.m. in new york and we start this morning with the big breaking news. a suspect is in custody after eight people were killed in shootings at three massage parlours in the atlanta area. now, authorities have not offered a motive yet, but at least six of the victims were asian in about the span of an hour eight people were killed at those three atlanta area spas spread across three miles. the attacks took place in quick secession, the fbi is assisting authorities in atlanta and cherokee county. here is a spokesperson for the chairy county s office. it s pretty unusual. as i mentioned earlier, in 2020 we had one homicide in cherokee county, we have had at leas
eight people are dead and one suspect is in custody after shootings at three metro area massage parlors. four of the victims are of korean ethnicity. we heard numerous gunshots coming from across the street. police are investigating the theory that all the cases are connected. average new covid case counts are rising in as many states as they are falling. we are just starting to turn the corner and where this goes depends on us protecting ourselves and others. we re asking for another wave. this is new day with alisyn camerota and john berman. welcome to our viewers in the united states and all around the world. this is new day, it s wednesday, march 17th, 6:00. erica hill is with me. we have details of new shootings at atlanta massage parlors that led eight people dead and this has led to increased security across the country. one suspect, 21-year-old robert aaron long is in custody. police say it s extremely likely that one person did carry out all of thes