increasing, they still appear to be mild. good news there. i m joined now by devin mackenzie in johannesburg and david bittermann. we are seeing soaring cases of omicron in africa. what are doctors saying about the scale of the surge and the symptoms here? well, when you look at the numbers, isa, certainly cases are soaring here in south africa, particularly in this province, and positivity rates increasing. as you d expect, as you move through a peak of a wave, it has happened quickly, quicker than in other waves. and certainly that speaks to the possible transmissibility of this variant, which is assumed to be dominating now in south africa. but there are some positive signs. clinicians, ambulance workers, hospital administrators i ve been talking to over the last few days say there isn t a sense yet that there is a big rush onto the hospitals for severe cases. it s still early days, but that
is an important indicator, a real world indicator of how worried to be about this variant. they do say that a lot of the cases right now in hospitals with covid are incidental. they have other reasons. the head of the world health organization says that this variant could have a major impact on the pandemic and says even milder cases need to be worried about. any complacency now will cost lives. many of those who don t die could be left battling covid or post-covid condition. this is with debilitating lingering symptoms that we are only beginning to understand. reporter: of course, the whole world is watching here to see and assess the impact of the variant. we may expect news later today about the specifics about its transmissibility. at this stage, though, there is some optimism at this stage
follow suit. france hasn t. france has explicitly not followed suit. again, words are good. actions are more important. the through lines, russia and china, autocracy and using propaganda to support its own agenda. nbc s keir simmons, thank you so much. according to the chief of the centers for disease control, u.s. omicron infections are proving to be mostly mild so far. more than 40 people in the country have tested positive for the variant, and more than three-quarters of them have been vaccinated. in an interview with the associated preece, cdc director rochelle wolensky says so far the main issues are kof congestion, and fatigue. she said, quote, what we generally know is the more
injured by a wound, it showed multiple people were impacted by this former officer s fateful decision to pull her service weapon instead of her taser. josh campbell, cnn. now, the labor department says new weekly unemployment claims have dropped to 184,000. that s a fraction of what they were a year ago. if you look at that, and the lowest number in 52 years. the nation still has about 11 million job openings which employers are struggling to fill. in another piece of good economic news, we ll take that. average u.s. gas prices are $3.34 a gallon, the lowest price in three weeks. some experts say spending less money at the pump could ease inflationary pressure, of course, on the economy. well, many people worry that economic recovery in the u.s. could take a hit from the omicron variant of covid-19. cnn globalist says not necessarily. have a listen. you never want to say never when it comes to covid. but i think if we don t hear
all right. that is going to do it for us tonight. again, a reminder that at 11:00 p.m. tonight brian williams will be doing his final broadcast of the 11th hour. it s mandatory viewing for all of us. i ll see you tomorrow night. way too early is up next. president trump loses a ruling regarding documents and the january 6th capitol attack. plus, new information on the omicron variant of covid-19. as cases increase, the question is how severe do the symptoms appear to be? and actor jussie smollett found guilty of staging a hate crime and lying police. as the trial heads toward the sentencing phase, the question, will the actor keep fighting? it s way too early for this.