this is a progressive way to handle parole hearings. most of the kennedy family is adamant and insisting that he should be kept behind bars. six of the senators, nine surviving children, signed a statement urging the governor not to release him. also in california, the state rolling out new covid rules for workplaces today. what are they? these rules will take effect today as the state struggling with omicron infections. the state will require more stringent rules for employee testing and mask wearing. one is how employees will test after being exposed to covid in the workplace. the test will have to be taken in front of a supervisor or with a health care representative. cal osha is tightening its definition of what qualifies as a face covering. a surgical mask, a res practice rater or a tighten woven
testing, and why that supply will continue to increase in the months ahead. joining me now from newton, massachusetts is dr. ashish jha. he is the dean of brown university s school of public health. thank you, doctor, for all that you do. thank you for having me on, rosemary. so doctor, i did want to ask you why the u.s. surgeon general is issuing this warning to americans not to expect omicron infections to peak anytime soon and if not in the coming days then when will they likely peak? yeah, so first of all, i think the surgeon general is right that we don t know exactly when it s going to peak. and more importantly possibly that it will peak in different parts of the united states at different times. we already see a peak in new york and new jersey and florida. probably certainly here in massachusetts, i m pretty confident that the omicron wave has peaked. but there are many parts of the country where it is still just beginning to accelerate. so as a nation it may be several
reporter: it s absolutely devastating. officials are pointing to a door left open that likely contributed to the smoke spreading so quickly. the fire commissioner said it likely started from a malfunctioning space heater. tonight, the governor and mayor are offering assistance to those residents. janai, thank you. now to our other top story tonight, the record breaking covid surge, fueled by the relentless omicron variant, pushing hospitals to the brink. the number of hospitalized americans who are positive for covid-19 soaring to over 138,000, just shy of a pandemic high. tonight, the u.s. is reporting a record average of more than 668,000 new cases per day, more than a six-fold increase compared to just five weeks ago. in new york, state officials are also reporting a single day record of more than 90,000 new cases. phil lipof reports on the dire staffing shortages tonight at america s hospitals. reporter: tonight, a record-breaking explosion of omicron infections pushing
delta or the first strain. the problem is the more people, if you have 50 million people unvaccinated, the virus mutates. and when it mutates, it changes that little covering on top of it. that new variant has put in 30 or 40 protein spikes different than the first one. and each one is slightly different and that s what helps it attack people and make it become infective. we have to hold on. from that point there. and you can begin to see if we begin to parallel what is happened in europe, we may have some hope in moving forward. we re not there yet. the expression is not there yet, we re not there yet right now. yeah. good to end on a note of hope there. dr. andre campbell, thanks for joining us. thank you so much for having me, kim. i really appreciate that. coming up, germany s parliament is still debating vaccine mandates as the country s health minister declares that omicron infections
something far more virulent. reporter: the year after the first visit to the biosafety lab, alexi and his team are still working to answer those critical questions. it just goes like wildfire. but it s not it doesn t cause as severe of a disease. reporter: the latest research shows that in a lab setting, omicron infections can protect against the more virulent delta variant. sigal says vaccines are still critical to avoid severe illness and death. in a year s time from now, what kind of discussion do you think we ll have about covid? there s a good chance we ll be standing here discussing the next variant. and maybe the virus is going to surprise us again. but in my opinion, we know more now than a year ago, and in a year s time we ll be in even better shape.