he suggested that mandate requirements for small businesses might change. meanwhile, the new year s eve celebration in times square is being scaled back because of the fast spreading omicron variant. instead of the usual 58,000 people washing in the streets, 15 people will be allowed. entry won t be allowed until 3:00 p.m. all revellers have to prove they re vaccinated and even though it s outdoors, everyone must wear a mask.speaking of new years eve, early next year, a number of cities are going to impose either new mandates or they re going to beef up existing mandates. the cities include chicago, new orleans and philadelphia. jackie? thanks, david. my next guest is not happy with the latest mandate. tyler hollinger from new york city. mayor bill de blasio says it s mandates that have kept the city
0 that is it for us at 5:00 and we will see you back here captioning sponsored by cbs tonight covid cancellations. hundreds of flights cancelled from coast to coast this holiday weekend as airlines face staffing shortages amid an om o kron surge. i m lilia luciano at la comrks where the holiday travel rush continues here and across the country. also tonight safety measures with covid numbers rising in a majority of the country. the concerns over how to stop the spread. i m in new york city, whereas you can see behind me many people are lining up to get covid tests after the holiday get togethers. plus the passing of a human rights icon, the lasting legacy of archbishop desmond tutu. we will be free! and 5g fallout. the battle between government agencies amid lingering safety questions. also going green. environmentalists rewriting the ending on this christmas tradition. and later, neon nostalgia. there is just not enough demand. how hong kong is shining a light on a f
doesn t cause as severe illness or is it too soon to tell when you look at the hospitalization rates. too soon to tell. we know the data out of south africa and out of scotland, places like that, show it tends to hospitalize less than delta, but the fact is it can still kill people. people died in the united states from omicron. the fact that hospitalizations are not, may be indicating a lot of cases are mild, we have to wait and see. many hospitals are pushed to the brink with delta patients and are going to get a little of omicron could be something that puts them over the brink in certain regions of the country. we have to be touch and go with the way hospital capacity looks at a regional level. systematically, yes, but regions have been hit hard. with omicron, that also impacts hospital or health care worker shortages. the cdc released updated
do i need to have a test, do i have symptoms consistent with covid-19. hopefully rapid tests will be more plentiful in days to come and can test if they want peace of mind. for the fully vaccinated, you have to expect you re going to get exposed to omicron. this variant can infect. we have to focus on severity of illness. in the vaccinated, it is something that s not very severe, more like the common cold. that two track pandemic is how you have to think about how safe your activities are or unsafe they are. on that note, it is important to point out hospitalizations and deaths are not at the peak levels we saw at the peak of the pandemic. and you re talking about new early studies that suggest omicron may be less likely to cause severe disease and hospitalization compared to the delta variant. the fact that the hospitalizations are not where it was during the peak of the pandemic, does that tell us, is that evidence that yes, this variant is not as severe,
borders were closed, hasn t seen family since 2019. now he is making the long trek to paris to be with family again. really important moments for families that have been pent up. there are ways to do things if vaccinated or boosted. thanks so much for that. turn it over to alisyn in new york, an area where cases are shattering records. it is sad and hard to believe this is where we are again unfortunately on christmas. what are we learning about the rise in outbreaks around the country? amara, it is important to point out what researchers and scientists found out about the omicron variant, that it is more mild. the concern still is the possibility is there of overwhelming the hospitals. at this point, more than 69,000 americans were in the hospital