day. that s a 16% jump over last week. and with the highly contagious omicron variant now the most dominant strain, the president is telling americans who are fully vaccinated and who got the booster not to panic saying they re highly protected, but he s also giving the millions of eligible americans who are still not vaccinated a very blunt warning. if you re not fully vaccinated, you have good reason to be concerned. you re at a high risk of getting sick, and if you get sick, you re likely to spread it to others including friends and family. and the unvaccinated have a significantly higher risk of ending up in a hospital or even dying. almost everyone who has died from covid-19 in the past many months has been unvaccinated, unvaccinated. the president saying the nation is not going back to the days of march of 2020, you know, when the pandemic first took hold. precisely because more than 200 million americans are now fully vaccinated, and that we have the resources to k
week of major development in the fight against covid. as families, friends, and worshipers gather in the days leading up to christmas president biden used a speech from the whitehouse this afternoon to assure the nation that there is a plan to fight the surge in covid cases and quickly spreading omicron variant and that his administration is up to the task. in just a moment we will speak with one of the administration s top health officials cdc director dr. rochelle walensky specifically about the substance of that speech and what the administration is promising, including half a billion free at home testing kits and more aid to over burdened hospitals. and the guidance from the president that the vaccinated should not change their holiday plans. today the president appeared defensive over the persistent problems in testing and also told the tens of millions of unvaccinated americans that getting the life saving shots was their, quote, patriotic duty. if there was one thing h
a covid surge is imminent. israel is offering a vaccine boost to people. we are live in jerusalem. could it be a potential deadlock? jurors in the trial of former police officer kim potter prepare for the third day of deliberations. after suggesting they may be struggling to reach a verdict. announcer: live from london, this is cnn newsroom with isa soares. welcome to the show, everyone. it is wednesday, december 22nd. we begin with new evidence of just how devastating the covid-19 pandemic has been. now, the cdc says life expectancy in the u.s. fell by almost two years in 2020. mostly due to the pandemic. last year americans lived to an average age of 77, down from 78.8. that is the biggest single-year drop in more than 75 years. and covid was the third leading cause of death behind heart disease and cancer. the news comes as the pandemic is still raging right across the country, fueled by omicron. the variant has now been detected in all but one state, and that is
mattingly. the president planned to speak before omicron was revealed to me, the dominant variant here in the united states about 24 hours ago. reporter: yeah, wolf, even though the president acknowledged he was surprised by how rapidly it became the dominant variant, white house officials have known for several days, the if not weeks, they had to enhance their response, that s what the president laid out in detail, whether it s boosters, ramping up on the hospital side of things, that the administration is ready to do more and this is a very different moment for the cou country. tonight president biden seeking to ensure an exhaustive nation as it braces for what may be the largest covid wave yet. this is not march of 2020. 200 million people are fully vaccinated. we re prepared. we know more. reporter: but the remarks marked a complex effort to straddle the line between a dire message to the unvaccinated. if you are unvaccinated, are you at a highly risk of getting s
of the jury. let s go out front. good evening, everyone. i m kate bolduan in for erin burnett. out front tonight breaking news. the country s fears confirmed. the omicron variant is now, by far, the dominant variant in the united states amid a surge of cases across the country. it makes up 73% of new cases right now, which the cdc previously estimated was just 3%. right now, the u.s. is averaging more than 130,000 cases every day. and president biden preparing for a major speech tomorrow to address this wave and announce new steps to fight the threat from omicron. this is not a speech about locking the country down. this is a speech outlining and being direct and clear with the american people about the benefits of being vaccinated. tonight, cities in the northeast are taking action. the mayor of washington, d.c. declaring a state of emergency, and reinstating the city s indoor mask mandate. boston announcing it will require proof of vaccination to enter most indoor pub