(music quieter) (phone clicks) in our health lead, teachers, police officers, hospital staff, airport officials, just some of the 700,000 americans testing positive for covid every single day, meaning millions are stuck at home sick, isolating,
quarantining. as nick watt reports, that s fueling major disruptions to everyday life and the economy. reporter: in los angeles, more than 60,000 schools, staff and students have tested positive in the run up to reopening. in new york, trash lies uncollected, three subway lines are closed. so many city staff are out sick. across colorado, so many emts are out they re now turning away some nonurgent callers. upwards of 5 million americans will be stuck at home over the coming days says one economist. all down to the omicron tsunami. nearly a quarter of american hospitals are now reporting a critical staff shortage with nearly 140,000 patients in those hospitals fighting covid-19. much of our hospital workforce is getting knocked out at home with symptomatic covid. reporter: some overwhelmed
airline experts caution, this is a difficult thing to forecast when it comes to crew callouts. southwest airlines cancelled about 1 in every 5 of its flights over the weekend. and in a new statement it says our operation has seen steady improvement on monday as we continue covering from staffing challenges and severe weather that impacted several of our largest bases of operation over the past week. now as these airline cancellations are going up, these cruise line cancellations are going up as airline cancellations are going down a little bit. but a dozen cruise ships have been docked over the last week at major cruise lines. royal caribbean just docked four of its ships out of an abundance of caution. that cruise line requires passengers be fully vaccinated. just last week one of its ships had to turn back to hong kong because of a covid scare on board. remember, the cdc two weeks ago advised americans not to go on cruises, regardless of their vaccination status, jake. are most air
rattles the u.s. charles kicked us off with the very latest from atlanta. merry christmas. good morning. good morning and merry christmas, griff. taking time off to spend this holiday with their family. the omicron is certainly hard at work. u.s. daily covid cases up with more than 260,000 americans testing positive. according to john s hopkins university 3354 deaths were reported. more than a 50% increase in a single day. hard to find at home test kits is surely complicating matters. cvs and walgreens announced their limiting the number of tests folks can purchase due to a significant increase in demand long lines form at testing sites around the country while demand swells at unimaginable