governor kathy hochul declaring a state of emergency to make sure the state and new york city are ready for any impact from the new variant. and the governor ordering all nursing homes to make booster shots available. we have to deal in the realities of a highly transmissible, we believe, variant. reporter: president biden urging americans to wear masks indoors when out in public again, to keep yourself safe and those around you. tonight, new york city doing the same. and stephanie ramos with us live tonight. and stephanie, i know the cdc doubling down late today on 18 and older in this country, to get your booster. and tonight, you re also learning that boosters could soon be expanded from 18 and up to include 16 and 17-year-olds, too? reporter: exactly, david. a source familiar with the discussions tells abc news pfizer is going to ask the fda in the coming days to authorize boosters for 16 and 17-year-olds. pfizer s vaccine was authorized
good evening and it s great to be back with all of you at home after the thanksgiving holiday. i felt just like you did when we saw those headlines over the holiday, the alerts on our phones, this new variant. the world health organization calling it a variant of concern and tonight, they re now saying the global risk is very high. very little is known, of course. it is believed to be highly transmissible, but it has dozens of mutations, which, of course, is also a concern here. first appearing in southern africa, tonight now confirmed in at least 17 countries, including canada. tonight, dr. anthony fauci suggesting it s likely here in the u.s. already and president biden today from the white house saying sooner or later, we will see it here. the president also saying, quote, omicron is a cause for concern, not a cause for panic. the variant first identified in botswana, reported to the world health organization on friday. and you can see the map here tonight, now confirmed cases in th
reporter: genomic sequencing labs are now racing to find cases of omicron here in the u.s. the president says all three vaccine-makers are preparing to update their vaccines, if needed. in the event, hopefully unlikely, that updated vaccinations or boosters are needed to respond to this new variant, we will accelerate their development and deployment with every available tool. reporter: moderna telling us it would take a couple of months. we ll know from the tests in the next couple of weeks just how effective the vaccines are against this variant. reporter: the potential threat from omicron comes as the u.s. is already seeing a spike with the colder weather and now the busiest travel weekend of the pandemic. hospital admissions have climbed more than 20% since the beginning of the month. our isolation unit for people with covid-19 here in the hospital every day gets bigger and bigger and bigger. we re adding more and more rooms. so we re going the wrong way with the varian
news. tonight, breaking news. what we know so far on this new variant. the president and dr. ant knit fauci and what they said today from the white house. the omicron variant, the world health organization labeling it a variant of concern. president biden today telling americans the new variant is a, quote, cause for concern, not a cause for panic. tonight here, the latest on confirmed cases now, including canada. dr. anthony fauci and dr. jha, you ll hear from them both here tonight. and the key questions this is variant more transmissible, could it be more dangerous, and most importantly, will the vaccines and the boosters work? tonight, your questions answered right here. also tonight, for the first time, we re seeing evidence made public in the investigation of former new york governor andrew cuomo. the state attorney general releasing nearly nine hours of
this new variant, though he cautioned, it s still early. we don t know exactly what s going on with this variant, but i would assume, and i think it s a reasonable assumption, that when you get vaccinated and boosted, and your level goes way up, you re going to have some degree of protection at least against severe disease. reporter: this morning, the final flight from johannesburg, south africa, touching down in newark ahead of the new u.s. ban on foreign travelers from eight south african countries. i think it s better to be safer than sorry, to restrict the travel until we know for sure. reporter: tonight, portugal confirming 13 cases of the omicron strain in one soccer team, after one player traveled to south africa. the kennedy family from north carolina were on a safari in south africa. they re now making their way home, but the ban does not effect u.s. citizens. i understand there s a more global and bigger picture than my own particular family, but i d like to get hom