norm. thousands of asymptomatic cases are stuck at mass quarentine buildings, and some of the buildings leaking under the heavy rain. and xi jinping said families forced to move were compensated. but the videos along with others appearing to show protests are a rare window into growing anxiety here. with the omicron variant spreading fast and no end to the lockdown in sight. the authorities said earlier this week the lockdown would be eased in areas of the city with no new cases, but the numbers keep climbing up 13 of the past 14 days and now full or partial lockdowns being extended in at least 45 other chinese cities. thank you so much. do it with me, everyone.
medicine and now protests are erupting janis mackey frayer is in china with more. reporter: tonight china s financial capital shanghai locked down. 26 million people confined to their homes. the omicron variant spreading fast a record 23,000 new cases saturday and outrage rising too. over china s strict no-covid policy on social media videos not verified by nbc news described as protests by people desperate to get food and medicine store shelves cleared out. this man on the street yelling what am i supposed to buy? what am i supposed to eat? in some areas drones telling people to stay home. control your soul s desire for freedom, it says. robots patrolling the streets, reminding residents to wear masks and wash their hands. while across the city a covid dragnet. thousands of asymptomatic cases sent to mass quarantine centers, some still under construction american josh vaughn tested positive last week he s now confined to a hospital they like gave me this like little blue mat an
shots in one night or whatever happened. the fun stuff to teach each other. the movie abba, the kids all listen to it. there is still some stuff they listen to. it is just past the top of the hour, 8:03. with the delta variant still wreaking havoc and the omicron variant spreading fast, hospitals are bracing for what could be a looming crisis. the latest on that plus president biden tours the devastation from the weekend s deadly tornadoes. we ll see how survivors are coping and democrats set to shift their focus from the president s build back better agenda to voting rights. but there is a hurdle in the way. house majority whip jim clyburn and senator john tester join us to talk about that and much
almost beyond belief. let s stay with that story. earlier, i spoke to dr anne rimoin, she is professor of epidemiology at the fielding school of public health at ucla. i asked her with christmas just over a week away and the omicron variant spreading fast, what people could do to mitigate the problem. i think that the things that we need to be really worried about is this incredible momentum that the omicron variant is now starting to gain. we are starting to see cases everywhere. people are already starting to travel for the holidays, they have already made their plans and so i think it is going to be very difficult to get people to pivot or change plans so we have to get very clear about what people can do to be as safe as possible and those things are, of course, getting vaccinated, getting boosted if you are already vaccinated, wearing very high quality masks, throwing in testing where you can if you are going to be gathering with people get tested.