rounds. so is covid. for the second year in a row, the pandemic bringing a lot of folks the equivalent of a lump of coal. airlines struggle with a shortage of flight crews and operations staff. overnight, the cdc announcing a big change in its covid guidance. health care workers who test positive for covid-19 but are asymptomatic can return to work after seven days with a negative test instead of ten days. the isolation time can be cut even further to prevent staffing shortages. that s a big change. omicron surpassed last summer s delta surge in terms of infections. the daily average of new infections topping 182,000. in washington, d.c., covid cases breaking the previous record. the nation s capital has seen 386% increase the last search days. but keep this in mind, the key metric that we health officials are watching, and that is