this morning new york city mayor bill de blasio announced on nbc the city is implementing a sweeping set of vaccine mandates for all private sector employers as health officials try to limit the spread of the omicron variant. today marks the official start of sweeping new testing requirements for travelers. all air travelers are required to show proof of a negative test taken no more than one day before their flight. meanwhile, the spread of covid domestically is-esque mating. the 7-day average of daily new cases in the u.s. has jumped above 120,000. with more than 1300 deaths on average every single day. those numbers are a sober reminder that so much more work needs to be done to combat the current spread of delta. even as officials work to combat the future spread of omicron. and there are some potential signs of hopeful news on the omicron front with dr. fauci saying yesterday that there has been, quote, encouraging preliminary evidence that