Covid-19 numbers keep soaring as Christmastime travelers scatter back across country and Americans prepare for another holiday weekend.
The US is now averaging 198,404 new Covid-19 cases each day, according to Sunday data from Johns Hopkins University. That's is 47% higher than a week ago and the highest such number since January 19.
"I think we're going to see half a million cases a day -- easy -- sometime over the next week to 10 days," CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner told CNN on Sunday.
About 71,000 Americans were hospitalized with Covid-19 as of Sunday, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services.
And an average of 1,408 Americans died from Covid-19 each day during the week ending Sunday, according to Johns Hopkins. That's a 17% increase from the prior week.
With the highly contagious Omicron variant, "We're certainly going to continue to see a surge (in cases) for a while," Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN on Monday.
Looking ahead to New Year's Eve on Friday, small gatherings of fully vaccinated people will be safe, Fauci said. But he advised people to avoid large parties where they don't know the vaccination status of all guests.
"When you are talking about a New Year's Eve party where you have 30, 40, 50 people celebrating, you do not know the status of the vaccination, I would recommend strongly: Stay away from that this year," said Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
"There will be other years to do that. But not this year."
New York City enacts new vaccine mandate
New York state broke a for new Covid-19 cases, with 49,708 new Covid-19 cases reported on Christmas Eve, according to by Gov. Kathy Hochul's office.
"As we come home from holiday gatherings, it is as important as ever to take precautions to limit the spread of COVID-19 this season," Hochul said in a statement. "The vaccine is the best tool we have to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe as we head into the new year."
The average number of daily new Covid-19 cases in New York City skyrocketed 644% in the past two weeks to 19,268, according .
The highly contagious in New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's decision to implement a vaccine mandate for private sector employees, effective Monday. The require workers to have at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine by Monday and don't allow employees to opt out through regular testing.
Children ages 5 to 11 in New York are now also required to show proof of at least one shot before being allowed into indoor dining, fitness or entertainment venues. And adults must show proof of two vaccinations for those areas.
The private-sector requirements align with those already in place for the city's public-sector employees and similar restrictions in around the country.
"We need to take very bold action," de Blasio said. "We're seeing restrictions starting to come back. We're seeing shutdowns," he said. "We cannot let those restrictions come back. We cannot have shutdowns in New York."
The city is still planning a .
Fully vaccinated health care workers get new isolation guidance
As more hospitals get overwhelmed, the CDC has issued new guidance that will allow some health care workers who get Covid-19 to return to work faster. Fully vaccinated medical workers who test positive but don't have symptoms to work.
That "isolation time can be cut further if there are staffing shortages," said Thursday.
But the new guidelines are only for health care workers. For the general public, the regardless of whether they have symptoms.
The new, emergency guidance for health care workers was made , the CDC said. The agency "continues to as we learn about the Omicron variant and will update the public as appropriate," it said.
Currently, about 75% of all ICU beds in the country are in use and 21% are occupied by Covid-19 patients, data from the shows.
Holiday travelers stranded as Omicron surges
were canceled over the holiday weekend -- partly due to but largely due to reduced airline staffing as employees called out sick.
More than , according to the . That's on top of roughly 1,200 Sunday flights that were canceled.
And at least four ocean cruise ships were from ports or prohibited from letting passengers disembark this past week because of Covid-19 cases on board.
Sporting events have also been postponed or canceled due to increased spread of Covid-19. At least five college football bowl games have been affected, including called off over the weekend. Pro basketball and hockey also have been .
The best way to protect against severe illness is to get vaccinated and boosted, Fauci said.
"Boosters are always good for any variant, but particularly for Omicron," he said.
"If you are vaccinated and not yet boosted, and your time comes for getting boosted, please get boosted. It's going to make all the difference to prevent you from getting severe disease."
The-CNN-Wire
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