the former vice president to testify. i kept coming back to the terror that must have been in the mind of those. life sentences for the three men who killed ahmaud arbery. a warning from president. i gave an order to law enforcement agencies and the army to shoot to kill without warning. what s behind the unrest? the details of tennis star novak. what we re learning this morning from newly released court documents. newsroom starts right now. good morning to you on this saturday, january 8th. i m christi paul. i m boris sanchez. there s drama to tell you about inside the biden administration. the next month could be brutal. the latest cdc forecast predicted more than 84,000 americans could die from covid over the next four weeks. hospitals already on the brink as icus are over run with unvaccinated patients. despite the surge, some state officials are pushing to reopen schools. the georgia governor has announce and he is loosening covid protocols to get p
assist hospitals where needed. we re tracking all of these developments from coast to coast. a school district seem to be doming up with their own solutions on whether to return to the classroom now that chicago teachers union is now being sued. what are you hearing? reporter: all these school districts try to figure out how to be in person safely. here in atlanta the governor is slashing those guidelines saying even if you have covid-19, you test positive, a teacher can come in the classroom and teach as long as they are asymptommatic and wear a mask. he s leaving the guidelines up to each school district to decide how they will move forward. the school district is requiring mandatory testing, twice week for teachers and it s up to students and their parents to decide if they will be tested. there are bigger issues in city of chicago as we see yet another round, a contentious battle. the mayor says she wants in person learning. she says it s best for the kids safety. that
record set almost a year ago of 142,000 hospitalizations. even more concerning, child hospitalizations are hitting new records as the omicron variant spreads. cnn s polo sandoval is watching all of this unfold for us. so, polo, what is the latest? reporter: fred, it s clear that federal health authorities are urging those who have not yet boosted after they have completed their initial series to get boosted as soon as they can. that s one of the reasons why the fda and cdc has amended that emergency use authorization that s been standing for some time, basically shortening that period of time from the initial vaccine series up to to that moment when they have to get the booster. now at five months versus the original six. so that s certainly something that they hope will lead to an increase in vaccination numbers and, of course, number of people being boosted because when you look at the number of hospitalizations, certainly continues to increase and the results have been
spreads. all of this is fueling more debate on how school districts can best keep kids and teachers safe. meantime, hospital staffing shortages and dwindling testing supplies are becoming more common. in california the national guard is being activated to help assist hospitals where needed. in colorado the state activated its crisis standards of care to keep up with the rise in patients. cnn s nadia romero is in atlanta where students are returning to classes in school, right, on monday, so what are people saying about the plans? reporter: yeah, fred, that is the plan so far, right, but the original plan was for them to return to in-person learning once they returned from holiday break, but then we had this rise in covid-19 cases, so they went back to remote learning. monday is the day. and on that day as well starts mandatory testing for teachers at the atlanta public school district, twice a week, and students can get tested as well with parental consent. that s how the
Of an inch of isaac lagt. not only is that dangerous for the roads but it clinician to trees and power lines and those may continue to come down as well so you could have some power outages. the other thing, fred, to keep in mind is temperatures will drop considerably. minneapolis going from 28 down to a high of 2 on monday. chicago going from a high of 30 today down to only 15 by monday. brutal conditions. thank you so much, allison chinchar. all right. hello again, everyone, thank you for joining me, i m fredricka whitfield. we begin this hour with states scrambling to keep up with a surge in covid hospitalizations. the number of patients across the country is nearing the record set almost a year ago of 142,000 hospitalizations and even more concerning, child hospitalizations are hitting new records as the omicron variant