We begin tonight with a significant announcement from the CDC on Covid protocols recommendation for isolation cut in half from ten days to five. We’ll tell you what that means for businesses including airlines, hard hit by staff shortages. President B met today with his Covid response team and briefed nation’s governors about the surge in new infections. We should point out the number of new daily cases has risen about two hundred thousand, nearing an all-time high. New York City’s vaccine mandate which requires nearly all private sector employees to be vaccinated took effect today. Meanwhile, officials continue preparation for what is being describe as a scaled-back New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square.

Here in New York, hospitalizations have surpassed five thousand for the first time since the early March. Also tonight, there are new recommendations from the CDC for people who tested positive from Covid and have no symptoms. Tonight, a dramatic shift from the CDC. With Omicron raging and workforces depleting, the agency has shortened the recommend time for isolation after getting Covid from ten days to five as long as people don’t have symptoms. The CDC says it based the decision on new research. Those who are exposed to Covid but boosted will no longer need to quarantine and those who are unvaccinated should still quarantine for five days according to the CDC. As Covid hospitalizations have been climbing, children are among those filling emergency rooms. It’s happening nationwide, US pediatric hospitalizations are now at the highest level since the pandemic September. In New York City, pediatric hospital admissions have quadrupled in two weeks. Among those patients, between the ages five to eleven, none have been vaccinated. Across the country, Omicron is setting daily caseload soaring to levels higher than last winter’s peak. New York and at least four other states, are now reporting more Covid cases than at any other point in the pandemic. Last week, new Covid cases rose more than three hundred percent in Florida compare to a week ago. And in Louisiana, Omicron has doubled hospitalizations in a week, eighty percent of those patients not fully vaccinated. As long lines persist around the country, President B said more testing is becoming available but admitted it’s still not fast enough. He urged the nation’s governors to reach out for assistance.