president, no legislative business of the day, but ceremonies planned by house speaker pelosi. let s begin this hour with the coronavirus. joining me now nbc s stephanie gosk in new york, nbc s megan fitzgerald in chicago, and dr. michael osterholm at the university of minnesota. welcome all. happy new year. stephanie, two big concerns across the country. the safety of children head back to school, the demand for testing. you highlighted both this morning. those massive testing lines in massachusetts, for instance. reporter: yeah, unbelievable picture if you saw that, just hundreds of cars in that town in massachusetts of people waiting to get tested and now you have schools opening in a lot of places, testing has really become the focus. testing and vaccines, to get kids back into classrooms safely. you see that here in new york city. this city got absolutely slammed by covid over the holidays with
skyrocketing case numbers. there was one day on new year s eve day, 85,000 cases recorded in just a single day, but the new mayor in this town wants to get kids back in classrooms. he s asked for negative tests from teachers, staff, and students before they come back into classrooms. that s just making the lines in this city longer and longer. there are some places that have decided to stay remote, big cities like cleveland and atlanta. other places pausing that return so kids can go and get tested before they go back into classrooms. you see this real shift in focus, unlike the beginning of this pandemic to keep those classroom doors open, andrea. first megan fitzgerald, let s go to chicago first, there are now new strict vaccine requirements in effect for all residents 5 years of age and older, so what can you tell us there? yeah, andrea, so you know,
costs, but we recognize this is something that needs to be done. do you worry about losing customers over this? we are hoping that people are going to understand that this is something that needs to be done, so i know that the city and the news have done a really good job of getting the word out that people have to be vaccinated and hopefully people will recognize that it s for everyone s safety. it s not meant to be a punishment. reporter: now, the city of chicago says they will be making sure that this is implemented and that all restaurants and businesses are following this new mandate. anyone who violates it could get a fine, andrea, or even be forced to close for a day. thanks very much to you, megan, thanks to you, stephanie. both of you, thank you, and get warm. get inside. and we ll talk to dr. michael osterholm. we want to play what we heard from former acting cdc director today show and get your reaction on the other side. i think these next six weeks