This is nbc nightly news with lester holt. Good evening no image tells us more about the state we are in with covid right now more clearly than the latest map of places with community transmissions. Places where the virus is spreading locally theyre highlighted in red. Yes, it is the entire country. While it appears there is no outrunning this virus, this evening, there are new efforts to keep pace the fda Okaying Boosters for kids age 12 to 15 also shortening the booster wait time for many others. As we return from holiday breaks, it feels like the world is on rewind schools wrestling once more with how to safely teach our children, while travelers struggle to get home in the face of covidrelated flight delays. Their burden made worse by a major eastern snowstorm. We have it all covered tonight starting with stephanie gosk. Reporter with covid cases soaring to record levels, an uneasy return to schools, even though more Vaccine Protection could soon be available today the fda authoriz
Waiting hours in line to get kids tested child hospitalizations soaring. dr. jha is here answering your questions. also tonight, the major winter storm hitting the east coast. thousands of flights canceled just as many are returning home from the holidays. cars stranded on the highway. heavy snow shutting down washington, d.c president biden stuck on air force one for nearly 30 minutes. we re tracking it all. just in, the verdict in the elizabeth holmes trial after the jury said it was deadlocked on multiple counts. the desperate search for the missing after that colorado wild fire destroyed nearly a thousand homes. why investigators are focussing on this piece of video at&t and verizon rejecting a plea to delay their 5g launch. why airlines have big concerns and the eagle eyed hockey fan what she spotted during the game that saved a life
That in the next day or two from the cdc. reporter: potentially adding demand for tests that are already tough to get your hands on. and, stephanie, for kids who have returned to the classroom, what is being done to prevent outbreaks? reporter: well, lester, here in new york when one or more students in the same class test positive for covid, instead of quarantining the whole class, they will test them home with rapid tests. and anyone that tests negative can come in the next day, lester stephanie, thank you. just a short time ago, i spoke with dr. ashish jha dean of the brown university school of public health. i asked him if he thinks we re ultimately all going to be infected with this omicron variant. i don t think we re all going to be infected many americans are, but there is a lot we can do to protect ourselves. and my hope is that a vast majority of americans don t end up infected with this variant. is omicron going to push delta out of the picture? and would that
More tests i think the administration has seen the testing crisis and hopefully will get its act together on making testing widely available for americans. that s going to be a key part of managing this pandemic for months and really years to come. our thanks to dr. jha. as we have seen, this covid explosion has hit the airlines hard and today so did that big winter storm that caused more mass cancellations and frustration for travelers, many still trying to get home here s tom costello. reporter: adding more misery to weary and stranded travelers coming back from the holidays, a massive storm stretching from the deep south, florida and alabama to the nation s capital in the bull s eye today, hit with up to a foot of snow air force one returning to joint base andrews in virtual white-out conditions the president emerging from the plane in a blinding snowstorm in the i-95 corridor thousands of cars stranded and struck. accidents and power outages. amtrak also affected at the cente