hoped to enter 2022 under far more normal circumstances. instead, this surge in coronavirus cases is really testing his ability to contain the pandemic and to reassure americans that there may be an end somewhere in sight. right now his strategy is focused on surging resources to states where hospitals have felt the strain. and also to bolster testing resources to try to ease those long lines at testing sites and delays in results that americans are seeing around the country. so ten days ago, the president promised that there would be 500 million at-home antigen tests that americans would be available to order line. still a lot of questions about those tests. we do expect to learn more about that at the end of this week. the federal government is also opening a testing site in new jersey. that opened on saturday. they re going to open testing sites in washington, d.c. and philadelphia, as well. now, the other thing to watch this week is the supreme court. the justices will hear oral ar
days. get them back doing their job, their work. keeping their mask on to protecting. they from infecting other individuals. now, meantime, testing in the united states just hasn t kept pace with the spread of the virus wait times. in some cities, it is two hours or more and of course a shortage of testing resources. the virus seem to be affecting more children than ever before. hospitalizations are up 35% in the past week alone. those numbers remain low in general. new york city has, though, seen a fivefold increase this month alone. and forced airline cancellations of thousands of flights during some of the busiest travel days of the year. more from cnn s alexander field reporting from new york. reporter: new guidance from the cdc. people infected with covid who
return to the classroom. let s discuss with chicago s commissioner of public health, doc doctoral allison arwady, where are those in chicago refusing to work in person yet again tomorrow? their worried that the schools are not safe. i get that we are in a covid surge and that there is a lot of worries in chicago overall. but when i look at risk benefit in chicago, more than 90% of our staff fully vaccinated, much higher vaccination rates among children than in the national average. we re not seeing, thank god, people who are vaccinated and boosted, if their adults, getting seriously ill and we re not seeing schools be the source of spread. they re looking for additional testing resources, which we re working on getting on a in place there. i m all in favor of additional testing. there is already ventilation
a helpful call, but i have some cautions. first, we re already stressed for testing resources, right, so that will be an issue very practically, and each test, both the pcr test, the very serious gold standard test and the rapid test have their limitations. we need to understand them, interpret them clearly as we go forward and use them more widely. dr. william, always appreciate your insight. thanks for joining us today. my pleasure. well, for folks maybe trying to get home still from their perhaps now extended holiday, thousand of flight cancellations to tell you about again, and that s a double whammy for airlines. first, they are dealing with staff shortages due to some covid issues as you ve been hearing about but now there s major winter weather issues stretching from georgia all the way on up into new england. both of those joining together to leave passengers in the lurch. pete muntean is joining us from
gathering indoors with high-risk people. order the tests before you need them. if they wait until they have an issue, by the time the tests arrive, the optimal time for testing may well have passed. reporter: dr. william schaasc schaafer in authority on immunization practices. you will have to find testing resources elsewhere. reporter: casey, what s not clear is whether or not the postal service is adding more mail carriers to deliver these tests given the staffing issues they faced. two of the postal unions tell me their understanding is they will not be adding any mail carriers. it will fall on those already on staff. we haven t gotten much in the way of logistics from usps other than the postal service telling us they are confident they can get this done. kasie? gabe cohen, thank you very