miguel almaguer who has more on the concern of the new rise in cases and what that could mean in the days and weeks ahead. chris, we re really looking at a convergence of several issues here. omicron is surging at a pretty rapid pace and delta has devastating issues at hospitals. reporter: new predictions for omicron are ominous. by the end of christmas week, the cdc now predicts the variants will produce a massive spike in new infections, up to a 55% increases. 1.3 million cases in just seven days. the grimacing prediction, the death toll could shoot up 71%. well over 15,000 lives could be lost in a single week. the health commissioner of the