s cember 17th welcome to cnn newsroom. i m alisyn camerota. victor is off today. nearly two years into the pandemic, the u.s. is seeing more coronavirus infections than ever before. the seven-day average of new cases has hit 265,000 a day. much fueled by the omicron variant. but omicron is proving to be unlike past peaks. the last time the u.s. hit case numbers this high, which was last january, the average daily death count was more than twice what it is today. meanwhile, cdc director is defending the agency s decision to shorten the time to isolate or kwquarantine.
after nine students and staff members tested positive for covid happening at a school that does require masks raising concerns for schools in eight states banning mask mandates for schools and teachers. out front now her 10-year-old daughter is quarantined and her 13-year-old son was sent home to learn virtually teachers are under kwquarantine. jessica, what was your reaction when you found out two days into the school year, a school year you hoped would be dramatically different than the one you just had that your kids already had to return home? i was sad, but i can t say i was surprised. when i dropped them off, i had a feeling this was going to happen. i just didn t think it would happen this soon. i mean, so i guess i m trying to understand. if this was able to happen in your school with a mask mandate, right? so people are wearing masks and that prevents a lot of spread, are you worried about kids and parents in the eight states