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that s something you need to decide with your doctor. alisyn, victor. elizabeth cohen, thank you very much. top of the hour, i m alisyn camerota. i m victor blackwell. good to be with you. republican governor greg abbott is facing push back on his controversial and broad band on covid vaccine mandates, including private businesses from enforcing vaccination mandates. american and southwest airlines both based in the lone star state vowed to continue requiring their employees to be vaccinated. abbot is up for reelection next year. he has been on a bit of a collision course with president biden who just last month announced that all employers with 100 or more workers should adopt vaccine mandates or covid testing regimens. ed lav reporter: i think everybody in texas is looking at abbot t s move through the prism of politics he finds himself in the middle of, and that is he is facing a primary challenge to be reelected next year. that primary is coming up in the ....
100,000 cases a day. it is still too many, but the first time in two months, boris. hospitals in alaska and pennsylvania are still seeing a surge in patients sick with covid-19. community transmission remaining high in certain areas. let s get to polo sandoval with the latest. reporter: i agree on that map, laura and boris. there is no question there that the situation is certainly improving throughout the country, but not all. you mentioned pennsylvania and alaska and also utah experiencing still a surge in covid patients and hospitals. the covid hospital rate is at the lowest point in nearly two months. add to that, the average number of covid cases each day which fell below 100,000 for the first time since august, it appears the nation is on the right path with over 65% of eligible americans to receive covid vaccine shots. there are some communities really well vaccinated and protected and then pockets of places with little protection. the virus isn t stupid. i ....
announcer: live from cnn center, this is cnn newsroom with kim brunhuber. the united states divided house of representatives is facing a new deadline. at issue is a popular bipartisan bill to fix america s infrastructure. the $1.2 trillion package needs to pass the house by the end of this month, but a crucial bloc of progressive democrats say they won t vote for the infrastructure until they have a much grander and pricier piece of social legislation in place, and that is nowhere in agreement with two democratic senators objecting to the cost of that measure. the president says setbacks and obstacles are just part of political life in washington. here he is. everybody s frustrated. it s part of being in government. hey, look, one of the things i love about you guys. i watched today, biden vowed he s going to do this, biden commits, biden s going to work like hell to make sure we get both of these passed. the immediate challenge facing the president is winnin ....
the top of the hour on cnn newsroom, good to be with you, i m victor blackwell. and i m alisyn camerota. just into our newsroom, the pentagon says the u.s. is finding signs that vladimir putin s military is forcing ukrainians to enter russia. ukraine s president puts that number at more than a million people. the u.s. has not assessed a figure yet. today, putin s propaganda took center stage in moscow against a backdrop of military parades, putin gave a national address to recognize victory day in russia, and he falsely blamed the west for the war he started. the u.s. and its allies are also noting what putin did not say. he did not declare war or try to mobilize more troops as analysts had speculated. he also cancelled the victory date air shows across russia that had been scheduled. the u.s. ambassador to the u.n. said that putin is recognizing that he has no victory to claim. russian strikes are claiming more lives on the battlefield. ukrainian officials fear as ....
president zelenskyy s office announced the rescue effort but no word yet on how it can happen. in mariupol, an official says russian troops are blocking a section of the city right near the plant. it s possible russians will still storm that facility. survivors say they have not seen sunlight for weeks. this is the video of them in the basement. diapers are being reused. food, water, medication are almost gone. in just the past day, ukraine says 50 air strikes have rained down on that steel plant, wounding more than 600 civilians inside. a ukrainian commander from inside told cnn what it s like on day 64 as russians surround them. the situation is critical. it s beyond a humanitarian catastrophe. these are hundreds of people, and they have dozens of children with them. the youngest is 4 months old. we cannot tell you for sure how long we can hold on for. that all depends on the enemy movement and also on luck. with so many lives at stake, the pentagon was asked if v ....