sf reporter: america, bracing for a tough winter that is beginning to look a lot like last winter. in the midst of a delta surge, the new omicron variant accounting for 3% of cases but spreading fast. this virus is extraordinary. it has a doubling time of anywhere from two to three days. it is going to take over. reporter: and with just over 60% of the country fully vaccinated, the white house warning of a season of severe illness for the unvaccinated. the u.s. now averaging 1200 deaths aday. and 130,000 new covid cases a day, up 10% from a week ago. hospitalizations nationwide up 35% over last month. intensive care unit beds 80% full. cases rising much faster in parts of the midwest, the south and the northeast. ohio s governor deploying over a thousand national guard members to over stretched hospitals there. in miami, a royal caribbean cruise ship docking over the weekend with 48 people testing positive for covid. new york setting a record for new cases for the third
professional sports leagues are cancelling games, major colleges are moving to remote learning and keep in mind we re still in the throes of the delta wave, the delta variant still accounts for 97% of reporting infections here in the u.s. right now, but we know omicron is more transmissible and it is spreading fast. this virus is extraordinary. it has a doubling time of anywhere from two to three days. right now in certain regions. country 50% of the ice lets are omicron which means it s going to take over. even if it has a lower risky is veracast we could be having a million cases a day if we re not really attentive to all of those mitigation strategies and, you know, a small fraction of a big number is still a real big number. here s the silver lining. the vaccines are working. cdc data shows if you run vaccinated, you are 20 times more likely to die of covid than someone who is vaccinated and boosted. that s not surprising. it s what we ve been hearing from doctors a
Hello and thank you for joining me. i m victor blackwell. allison is off. we re two years in the pandemic and facing another holiday season weighed down by cancellations and restrictions and for a lot of people confusion. right now the delta variant makes up 97% of the cases in the u.s. but dr. fauci said the very contagious omicron variant will become the dominant variant or strain in the country in the coming weeks. here is good news from moderna. encouraging preliminary data suggesting that the covid boost ser effective against the omicron variant. cnn s athena jones has more on the latest covid developments. it is going to be a tough few weeks to months as we get deeper into the winter.