It’s a tale of two Americas in the ongoing battle against the Omicron variant. Some parts of the country can see light at the end of the tunnel, while others are seeing the biggest surge in cases since the start of the pandemic. In the northeast, cases in hospitalizations are falling after hitting a peak about a week ago. And in New York City, cases have dropped forty-four percent, and hospitalizations are down nearly fifty percent in just the last seven days. While in other parts of the country, Omicron is spreading like wild fire, with more than 5.4 million new infections last week. Hospitals in Oklahoma City have a dire warning tonight, they are at the breaking point. In an extraordinary open letter, the major healthcare systems write, “soon, you or your loved one may need us for life-saving care, whether for a stroke, emergency appendectomy or trauma from a car accident, and we might not be able to help.”

The B administration will announce tomorrow that it plans provide four hundred million N-95 masks for free to Americans.

Here in North Carolina, even as cases surged some testing sites had to shut down over the weekend due to the winter storm, and there could be more bad weather on the way this weekend. But tonight, the federal government says there is another option for the near future. Today, as long lines persist at some testing sites across the country, the federal government site to order rapid tests is live. People can order up to four tests per household which will ship within seven to twelve days. The latest effort to try to bring down the number of cases and hospitalizations. This comes as fears that Omicron which may cause less severe disease may cause more death. Modelers are predicting fifty thousand to three hundred thousand more Americans could die by mid-March. As Omicron continues its siege, some states are returning to pandemic protocols in schools. Massachusetts Public Schools today announced weekly at-home rapid tests will be available for students and staffs. Nationwide more than six thousand schools were disrupted one or more days last week. Meanwhile, Oklahoma City four major hospital systems say they’ve run out of ICU beds due this latest surge. In North Carolina, Covid related hospitalizations are at pandemic high. Currently, one in four people tested positive. In Atrium Health Carolina’s Medicals Center in Charlotte, where one hundred one sixty-five Covid patients are on life support, ninety-two percent of them unvaccinated.