after crossing the 54 million mark. cases are piling up at lightning speed now. we ve been averaging 1 million new cases every few days. the fastest at any point in this pandemic. and it s presenting new testing challenges. in fact, take a look at this shot of massachusetts from a few hours ago. lines of cars. stretching as far as the eye can see. who would have thought we d see something like this as we close in on nearly two years of this pandemic? coming up, i ll talk to a massachusetts doctor about what s happening there. we ll also dig into this nationwide testing headache. also apocalyptic. that is the only way to describe this snow-studded burned out aftermath from the wildfires in colorado. we ll have the latest on the ground there. and in just the last 15 minutes, chuck schumer released a letter calling the need to pass voting rights legislation urgent.
health. not only that, we have learned a lot about the spread of covid in schools. according to the cdc, several studies show transmission among students is relatively rare, particularly when prevention strategies are in place. speaking of prevention strategies, congressional indicated $190 billion in covid relief to help america s schools reopen, funding ppe, improved ventilation, technology and tutoring programs. and get this, chicago received almost 2.8 billion in federal aid since march 20th, according to data analysis by chalk beat. for all the challenges that students still face from omicron, most of the chicago teachers union concerns about masks, ventilations from one year ago have been addressed, big time. as for testing challenges, 350,000 rapid tests will be september to chicago public schools courtesy of abbott labs.