spreading,o dell beckham joining the long list of players and staff testing positive and quarantining after exposure. there is a window in the community spread and kudos to the sports leagues because they re doing a fantastic job of surveillance testing an the rest of the country, we re driving a car down a dark road with the headlights off while looking in the rearview mirror. reporter: covid-19 cases and hospitalizations climbed around 40% this past month. deaths said the cdc, forecast to rise in the month ahead. the delta variant still rampant, omicron on the rise. very soon it will be the dominant variant. we re seeing that in south africa and the u.k. and i m sure that is what we ll be seeing here relatively soon. reporter: no need at this point for a omicron booster vaccine said dr. fauci, but this variant is now the most complete escapee, say researchers in a new pre-print study.