arms a day. this is the nationwide average but there are exceptions, of course. you can see in five states case rates are climbing by at least 10%. more that you from cnn s paulo sandoval. reporter: christine, laura, good morning to you. big picture, covid rates are on the decline across most of the country. 45 states according to johns hopkins university which tracks these numbers saw cases decline or remain relatively steady over the weekend. nationally the u.s. seeing 95,000 new cases throughout the day. it s more than 2 months since it s dipped below that number. that number of infections is still too high and the number of vaccinated americans is still not high enough. he s warning against declaring a premature victory. take a listen. we still have around 68 million people who are eligible to be vaccinated that have not yet gotten vaccinated and even those who have been vaccinated, you want to look forward to holiday season, spending time with your family and doing t
now, the company is blaming air traffic control problems, staffing and weather. let s get straight to cnn aviation correspondent pete monteen, he s been following all of this. he s at reagan national airport today. what more are you learning about these cancellations and what s really behind them, pete? erica, this is a huge operational mess for southwest airlines and it s not like they can get back to normal with the flip of a switch. this is really more akin to unplugging something and plugging it back in again. these problems that southwest says started back on friday because of air traffic control and weather issues prompted a rare statement from the federal aviation administration saying there were no such issues on saturday and sunday when southwest experienced the lion s shares of its cancellations, 1,100 flights on sunday, about 30% of its total schedule. so far we ve seen about 348 cancellations today. that s about one in every ten flights. this is really caused by
developments at reagan national outside of d.c. what is the story behind these cance cancellations? reporter: it s a big operational mess for southwest airlines, erica. it s not like flipping on a switch to get it back to normal. this is more like the airline needs to unplug it and plug it back in again because it says these problems all started back on friday when there were weather and air traffic control issues. the federal aviation administration put out a statement saying there were no weather or agency issues on saturday and sunday when southwest experienced the lion s share of cancellations and delays. it canceled 800 flights on saturday, 1,100 nights on sunday, about a third of its overall schedule for the day. it s canceled about 350 flights today, about 1 in every 10 flights. there is a ripple effect southwest says it put planes and people in the wrong spots. some flight crews didn t even have hotels and that left tens of thousands of passengers in the lurch in th
southwest airlines cancelling thousands of flights, stranding tens of thousands of passengers. what caused this meltdown? and the spies next door. an fbi sting ensnaring two would-be spies. we ll tell you about a couple accused of trying to sell nuclear secrets in peanut butter sandwiches. we begin with encouraging developments on the pandemic as the u.s. appears to be turning a coroner the fight against coronavirus. the u.s. averaging about 93,000 new cases per day, the lowest daily average in more than two months. hospitalizations and deaths also down significantly. and there s promising news on the vaccine front as well. the u.s. now averaging a million doses administered a day. that s the first time the nation has hit that mark in weeks. and new this morning, merck asking the fda for emergency use authorization of its new antiviral pill, which the drugmaker says cuts hospitalizations and death by half in those with early symptoms. elizabeth cohen, a lot of signs for o
become the first oral treatment for covid. cnn s nick watt has more. the first pill to treat covid-19 might be getting close. today it is makers merck and ridge buy bio therapeutics asked the fda for emergency use authorization. unlike the quack cures out there, this has science behind it. in trials, peer review had half of the risk of hospitalization and death in people already suffering symptoms. long-term, i think this is huge. reporter: and unlike monoclonal antibody treatment as begun iv infusion, these are easy to pop pills. so it makes it much more accessible and reliable and gives us hope. reporter: meantime, more than a thousand city workers in boston face unpaid leave tomorrow for failing to get vaccinated and showing the proof or taking tests as more vaccine mandate deadlines near, shots in arms did just tick up. plus a powerful voice is making a pitch to fellow evangelicals, a somewhat hesitant group. if you ve prad to god to give you protection agains