restrictions. several passengers arriving in the netherlands from south africa testing positive for the variant. why the head of the eu says the world is in a race against time. news on the variant comes as the u.s. records its busiest travel day since the pandemic began. the tsa screening millions of people over the holiday weekend. now the rush after thanksgiving. rob marciano standing by tracking the rain and snow already causing accidents. retailers are stepping up security across the country tonight. the response to a growing wave of brazen smash-and-grab robberies. the security guard killed protecting a tv news crew. the major headline tonight for 1.5 million americans suffering from type 1 diabetes who require insulin injections or infusions to survive. how scientists say one man has been cured of the disease at least temporarily. mourning the death of a fashion icon, fans remembering the trailblazing american designer virgil abloh. bargain hunters gearing up for cyber monday deals. tens of millions americans expected to shop online tomorrow, the sales just hours away. good evening, everyone. thanks so much for joining us on this busy sunday. i'm linsey davis. millions of americans heading home today after seeing family this thanksgiving, and there are now growing concerns about the new covid variant. omicron first detected in south africa. moments ago, canada confirming the first two cases in north america now joining more than a dozen countries worldwide including australia, parts of europe and the uk. today president biden returning to the white house and meeting with his covid response team and that new travel ban blocking most non-u.s. citizens from eight countries set to take effect in just hours. omicron has not been detected here in the u.s., but today dr. fauci said it is not a question of if, but when. dr. jha joins us in a moment to answer all of your questions, but first abc's elwyn lopez leads us off. >> reporter: tonight, the u.s. on high alert, scientists racing to learn more about the new coronavirus variant, first identified in southern africa, now spreading across the globe. dr. anthony fauci saying it's only a matter of time before the omicron variant is identified here in the u.s. >> inevitably it will be here. the question is will we be prepared for it and the preparation that we have ongoing for what we're doing now with the delta variant just needs to be revved up. >> reporter: friday just a day after millions of families gathered for thanksgiving americans waking up to the concerning news about omicron, the world health organization labeling it a variant of concern. president biden returning to the white house to meet in person with dr. fauci and his covid-19 response team. health experts stressing it's far too soon to know if omicron causes more severe illness than other variants, but a major concern, how well will the current vaccines protect against this highly mutated variant? dr. fauci saying, we should know within about two weeks. >> i don't think there's any possibility that this could completely evade any protection by a vaccine. it may diminish it a bit, but that's the reason why you boost. >> reporter: both pfizer and moderna working to adapt their vaccines to fight omicron if necessary, a process that could take two to three months, and tonight the u.s. just hours away from implementing a new travel ban on most foreign nationals from these eight countries. the biden administration says it will buy the u.s. time to prepare. >> i think i got on the last flight. i made it earlier because of the variant. >> reporter: new york state pre-emptively declaring a state of emergency to boost hospital capacity and increase staffing. the governor saying while the new omicron variant has yet to be detected in the state, it's coming. the country already seeing troubling signs of a winter surge, hospitalizations rising for a third straight week after nearly ten weeks of steady declines. >> the surge feels worse than ever before, and the patients are sicker, and although this feels like the new normal, i don't feel like anything about this is normal. >> health care workers once again sounding the alarm. elwyn lopez joins us from the airport in atlanta and, elwyn, just moments ago the white house released new details about the president's in-person meeting with his covid response team. what have we learned? >> reporter: linsey, dr. fauci telling the president in that briefing that he believes the existing vaccines are likely to provide protection against severe cases of covid-19 adding that he recommends all fully vaccinated adults to get their booster shots as soon as possible. we know the president is planning to address the nation tomorrow, linsey. >> elwyn, thank you. countries worldwide are racing to understand the new variant and try to contain its spread. several european nations are already seeing cases including at least 13 passengers arriving in the netherlands from south africa all now under mandatory quarantine. israel closing its borders to foreign nationals. morocco banning foreign flights and the uk imposing new restrictions. abc's julia macfarlane is in london. >> reporter: tonight, world leaders rushing to get ahead of the new variant. >> we take this omicron variant very serious, and we know that we are now in a race against time. >> reporter: like the u.s., more countries adding new travel bans against south africa and its neighboring nations and implementing measures once again as more cases of the new variant are confirmed. israel closing its borders to all foreigners for two weeks after confirming its first positive omicron case. the uk reintroducing compulsory mask wearing in shops and public transport and tightening isolation rules for anyone in contact with positive cases. travel from south africa linked to more than a dozen omicron cases on board two klm flights to amsterdam. those travelers now in isolation. >> it's now 5:00 at the airport. >> reporter: paula zimmerman had to wait 18 hours at the airport until tests came back negative. >> i had a really great trip seeing, you know, family and friends and visiting wonderful south africa. in retrospect maybe it would have been wiser not to go. >> reporter: south africa tonight hitting back at the travel bans saying it should be applauded for its science in identifying the variant early, instead of being punished. >> these restrictions are completely unjustified and unfairly discriminate against our country and our southern african sister countries. >> many african countries calling this discrimination. julia joins us tonight from london. the w.h.o. is out today with a statement saying it stands with african nations in calling for borders to stay open? >> reporter: yeah, that's right, linsey, the w.h.o. says countries like south africa who are sharing their public health data must be supported if we are all to win the fight against covid-19. meanwhile, here in the uk officials are calling for an urgent meeting of the g7 tomorrow. linsey. >> julia, thank you. we know many of you have a lot of questions about this new variant, so let's bring in dr. ashish jha, dean of the brown university school of public health, and, dr. jha, of course, we're in the early stages of researching omicron. so what do we know on these three big points? is it more transmissible? does it cause more severe disease? can it reduce vaccine effectiveness? >> yes, linsey, thank you for having me back. it does appear again very preliminary evidence that it is more transmissible. we don't know for sure. we really have no data on severity, whether it's more severe, milder or more significant, and the big question that we're all looking for, of course, is how well do i'm hopeful they will but we just don't have much data on it yet either. >> and we heard dr. fauci today saying it's inevitable that omicron will come to this country if it's not here already. so what should the u.s. be doing right now in order to prepare? >> yeah, i think it likely is here or will get here very, very soon. we obviously need to be doing really vigorous surveillance to look for it and find it and track it when it does get here. second is americans need to be getting vaccinated because if this is a more contagious variant, most people will end up encountering omicron and you do not want to do that unvaccinated, so there's a lot we can be doing to get ready for this variant once it arrives in the u.s. >> and just to be clear here, even if the current vaccines are less effective against this variant, getting vaccinated still our best protection? >> absolutely. look, the vaccines, even if they take a hit, will not be rendered ineffective. so i'm very confident that the vaccines will provide some degree of protection, maybe a very high degree of protection, that's why it's really important that people get the vaccines so people get boosted if they're eligible. >> dr. jha, thanks so much for joining us. despite the concerns about the new variant, millions of americans are now heading home this sunday after thanksgiving, which is traditionally the busiest travel day of the year and a record number of passengers expected to pass through tsa checkpoints today. the most since the start of the pandemic. these lines are at the atlanta airport. abc's reena roy is in new york for us tonight. >> reporter: tonight, a potential new pandemic travel record. today on track to be the busiest travel day since 2019 as millions make their journey back home after the thanksgiving holiday. an estimated 48 million hitting the roads despite gas costing about a dollar more than a year ago. airports also crowded. the tsa expecting to screen more than 2.4 million passengers today, the most in one day since the pandemic began. long lines of traffic outside these atlanta terminals. >> we thought we were going to get here early, but once we got through the traffic, it was -- seemed like the time was going really fast. >> probably going to miss the flight. >> reporter: inside philadelphia's international airport, security lines not much better. >> it was crazy to say the least. >> what do you mean? >> security lines were over an hour long. just to check a bag was probably 30 minutes. >> reporter: across the nation the tsa, airlines and airports bulking up staffing to handle the rush. >> we tried to bring on as much additional staffing as we can and the staffing that we have will be working over to cover the holidays and as many areas as we possibly can, but there could be delays. >> reporter: now the rest of the holiday season is also expected to be busy on the roads here and in the air with experts predicting yet another big rebound in travel. linsey. >> safe travels to all. reena, thank you. that ride home for some was made a bit more dicey due to a blast of snow. slick travel along the eastern great lakes. this multivehicle accident was on i-90 in erie county, pennsylvania, today. let's go straight to abc's senior meteorologist rob marciano. hey, rob. >> reporter: hi, linsey. we continue to get pulses of precip and reinforcing shots of cold air making roads slick especially her in the northeast. here's the radar. you see the latest clipper system heading across the great lakes where the snow is, i-80, i-90 continue to be problem spots. the other trouble spot is the pacific northwest, more rain coming in there. the olympic peninsula and rivers are rising there. flash flood watches up for seattle. billingham seeing their wettest november on record. a lot of people still traveling tomorrow. quiet across a good chunk of the country. rain in the northwest and continued cold here in the northeast. linsey. >> rob, thank you. now to the smash-and-grab robberies that have police and shoppers on high alert. authorities in los angeles arresting four men they suspect were part of a robbery at a home depot on black friday. an alarming trend in recent weeks of brazen thieves across the country. now many businesses are fighting back. here's abc's zohreen shah. >> reporter: tonight, major retailers making big moves to protect their stores from the alarming trend of highly orchestrated smash-and-grab heists targeting businesses across the country. flash mob-style attacks have been plaguing department stores in recent weeks leading up to the year's busiest shopping season. >> especially this time of year people like, you know, give, a lot of people take too so it kind of sucks. >> reporter: on black friday thieves struck a southern california home depot. nearly a dozen people stealing tools like wrenches, hammers and crowbars. sheriffs arresting four suspects saturday but saying they are still seeking several more. just before thanksgiving, five robbers made off with $25,000 worth of designer purses from a nordstrom in los angeles. one of them using bear spray, police said, to attack a security guard. and last weekend a mob of 80 people overwhelming mall security in oakland before fleeing to their getaway cars. but experts saying businesses can begin to fight back. >> you ensure that the type of stores that are being hit have nothing of great value in the front of the store. and many stores with very expensive items actually are putting tracking devices on the items. >> reporter: best buy even calling for congress to take action after about 30 thieves targeted their minneapolis store on black friday saying the company is working at the federal level to pass a law that would make the online reselling of these stolen goods much more difficult. and, linsey, this trend has taken a tragic turn. a security guard named keith nishita was shot while protecting a bay area news crew that were covering a recent smash and grab. he died overnight. police are still searching for his killer. linsey. >> tragic, indeed. zohreen, thank you. and, of course, we are just hours away from cyber monday. millions of consumers getting ready, supply chain problems may have an impact this year, but there are some deals to be had. abc's deidre bolton with what to look out for. >> reporter: tonight shoppers are gearing up for the biggest online shopping day of the year. >> i think that the cyber monday deals are going to get crazy by sunday. >> reporter: americans are expected to spend between $10.2 billion and $11.3 billion on cyber monday alone. >> what big box retailers are doing now is putting a lot of their money into making sure their online events are comparable. >> reporter: some of the hottest deals include chromebooks as low as $109 with three months free of youtube tv and a bella pro analog air fryer, $30 down from 60 both at best buy. toys are the biggest selling category. for paw patrol fans this playset is 50% off at target, but you better act fast. out of stock messages on retailers' websites are up 124% through friday versus pre-pandemic levels. supply chain problems are plaguing shoppers d business owners alike. >> how long it takes for us to get stuff shipped, that's really affected me. >> reporter: for the first time online spending on black friday and thanksgiving did not exceed the previous year's levels. some analysts say it may be due to earlier discounts and supply chain concerns. americans may be changing the timing of their purchases, but the national retail federation still forecasting a record spend for november and december around $850 billion. that is an 8 1/2% to 10 1/2% increase over last year. linsey. >> some helpful tips there. thanks so much, deidre. and there's still much more ahead on "world news tonight" this sunday. what we're learning about the man accused of stowing away in the landing gear of an international flight to florida. and the powerful earthquake striking today and the severe damage it caused. learning about our history with ancestrydna®, inspired us to learn more about our culture and where we come from. ...here? ohhh my god. it told us, almost to the 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[upbeat music] get back to the savings? still fresh ♪ in wash-scent booster ♪ downy unstopables some people have joint pain, plus have high blood pressure. they may not be able to take just anything for pain. that's why doctors recommend tylenol®. it won't raise blood pressure the way that advil® aleve® or motrin® sometimes can. for trusted relief, trust tylenol®. finally, the extra helping of gratitude found in america's hospitals this time of year. practically as traditional as the stuffing in cranberry sauce. >> come here, little turkey. >> reporter: each year turkeys fill the nicu at riverside regional medical center in newport news, virginia. >> put your little turkey hat on. that is too cute. >> reporter: from top to bottom this is the dressing that accompanies each new life at this time of year. >> aww. so cute. >> reporter: even the boy and girl twins all decked out in matching gear for the holidays. >> i love, love, love working with the babies and the moms and just getting to see them off to their new beginnings. >> making it a little more homey for them here. make it special. >> reporter: and in atlanta -- >> excited. >> reporter: -- tim and kathy are grateful for an extra helping of kindness from their team at emory university hospital. tim and kathy are co-workers. tim needed a kidney. family and friends were not a match. tim tried looking everywhere including a request in the company newsletter. turns out kathy was a perfect match. >> it's been amazing. no more dialysis. >> reporter: and they too have matching clothing, only theirs reads kidney buddies for life. tonight tim is thankful for a second chance. >> thank you so much for watching. david muir back here tomorrow. i'm linsey davis. happy hanukkah. good night. dion: next on abc news at 6:00 call it the post holiday travel crunch. airports are looking like we haven't seen them since early 2020 as americans return home after the thanksgiving holl day and the new covid variant sparks concerns. the travel restrictions about to kick in and what vaccine makers are doing right now to keep americans safe. and a dog heist in oakland a bulldog taken as the thief holds the woman at gun point. abc7 news at 6:00 starts rite now. >> building a better bay area moving forward, finding solutions. this is abc7 news. dion: well, you can call it the rush to return. airports are packed as millions of americans head home after the long holiday weekend and the t.s.a. says this week has been the busiest we've seen since before the pandemic. good evening. i'm dion lin. you're watching abc7 news at 6:00 live here on abc7, hulu live and wherever you stream. the end of the thanksgiving weekend is shaping unto be one of the busiest days for air travel since the pandemicic began. it expects to screen 2.4 million travelers alone that tease most since the spring of 2020. for much more of the last week, more than two million people have passed through security at airports across the country each day. abc7 news reporter cornel bernard went to the airport >> travelers are facing traffic delace and some long lines at s.f.o. in one of the biggest travel days in two years. a real traffic mess. cars drop off loved ones for sur