happens early in the course of the illness, a day or two prior to symptoms and two to three days after. the number of children admitted to hospitals with covid is up 35% in just the past week. new york city has seen a five-fold increase this month. meanwhile, sickouts from covid have forced airlines to cancel or delay thousands of flights worldwide. the infectious disease expert in the u.s., says the administration is working hard to increase access to testing across the country. it s a combination of people concerns appropriately about omicron, which is spreading so rapidly, as well as the fact that we re in the holiday season and people want to get tested before they start mingling with their family and their friends and traveling. so, it really has made a major upsurge in demand for the tests, when we are already in a situation where, quite frankly, we don t have enough tests at this particular point in time.
to be finding a new target across the u.s., children. pediatric hospital admissions are up 35% in the last week. new york city has seen a five-fold increase this month. and admissions in washington have doubled. meanwhile, the centers for disease control and prevention is revising its guidelines for people recovering from covid. it says five days of isolation is enough as long as a person has no symptoms and continues to wear a mask for the next five days. the top infectious disease expert in the u.s., dr. anthony fauci, says he will dismiss the need for a vaccine mandate for air travel, at least for now. the omicron variant is causing big problems for the airline industry. thousands of flights were canceled at the last minute, due to staffing shortages, leaving passengers stranded after christmas, just wanting to get home. we have more from new york.
people recovering from covid. it now says five days of isolation is enough, as long as a person has no symptoms and continues to wear a mask for the next five days. the top infectious disease expert in the u.s., dr. anthony fauci, says he expects covid cases will continue to surge, but he s dismissing the need for a vaccine mandate for air travel, at least for now. right now, i don t think people should expect that we re going to have a requirement in domestic flights for people to be vaccinated. when i was asked that question, i gave an honest answer. it s on the table and we consider it, but that doesn t mean it s going to happen. i doubt if we re going to see something like that in the reasonably foreseeable future. well, more than 2,800 flights worldwide were canceled monday, according to tracking websight flightaware. and with covid cases surging, the travel chaos is threatening to extend through the new year. cnn s richard quest has the latest.
joining me now is dr. peter hotez, an infectious disease expert at baylor college of medicine. here s the concern that i have. what now stops the unvaccinated from saying i m not going to get vaccinated, after all, there s now a pill on the horizon? well, that would be a pretty treacherous strategy to embark upon. here s why, michael. first of all, the drug s not going to be ready possibly in time for this omicron wave. production is only really starting now. we re not going to really get up to speed for another few months, so it s not going to really help us that much during this omicron wave. the second point is you ve got to get treated very early. you have to take this medicine the minute you have symptoms, number one, or within a short time afterwards, and you have to have easy access to diagnosis in order to be eligible to get it. and we don t have diagnostic testing up to speed.
we may get 40%, 50% of americans infected with this by mid-february. about 9 million workers called out sick from covid in a two-week span from january to february. hospitalization are 82% full. spillover effects means your care could be compromised even if it has nothing to do with covid. the data shows the good news is the boosters are 97% effective from going to the hospital. that s the science. in politics, you have florida governor ron desantis still bad-mouthing boosters and dodging. governor, have you received your covid booster shot? so that s something that, you know, i think people should make their own decisions on. i m not going to let that be a weapon for people to be able to use. i think it s a private matter. i m joined now by an infectious disease expert at the university of boston university