Daily U.S. COVID-19 cases hit all-time record, CDC estimates 59% are Omicron
Yahoo Finance's Anjalee Khemlani details reports of daily diagnosed COVID cases reaching a new high for the pandemic, the CDC's estimates for new cases attributed to the Omicron variant, hospitalization trends, and the impact on travel industries such as cruise ships.
Video Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING]
BRIAN CHEUNG: Welcome back. The US reaching a record for daily COVID cases with no sign yet of the Omicron variant peaking just yet. So let's check in with Yahoo Finance's Anjalee Khemlani for more.
I understand that the CDC actually revised down the percentage of cases that are Omicron here versus other variants. But it still remains the dominant strain, right?
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: That's right, Brian. So let's break down what exactly we've got going on.
First of all, to note the milestones that we've marked, we know that global cases are now surpassing a million per day. And we also know that the US average has surpassed its previous record, and now is at 267,000 cases per day on average as of yesterday.
That mixed in with the fact that the CDC did downgrade what they thought was the Omicron prevalence to 59% down from about 73% last week, that changes sort of what we're looking at in context of what we expect in terms of cases and breakthrough and the kind of disease severity that we might be seeing.
So now, we see that Omicron, while it still is dominant, is still playing alongside Delta. And so we're going to have to see what that really ends up being.
We know that while hospitalizations remain stable largely for adults, we are seeing quite a bit of increase, especially for pediatric. So something to watch out for there.
Meanwhile, we know that there is also a lot going on with the CDC yesterday, really having a rough day with pushback from the new isolation guidelines and really trying to defend the change as a balance of what the economy needs as well as safety for individuals.
Dr. Anthony Fauci told MSNBC yesterday that it really is a balance of risk. And that really tells the story of what the entire pandemic has been in terms of Public Health strategies.
CDC Director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, today also talking about the antigen test. As we know, the FDA saw some reports of-- did say that the antigen tests are just a little less effective when it comes to Omicron.
But it still is useful is what Dr. Walensky did say. Listen to what she had to say.
ROCHELLE WALENSKY: If you have a negative antigen test and you have symptoms, then you should go ahead and get that PCR test. And those antigen tests are really helpful for things, as you just noted, on tests to stay in school where we're getting an antigen test every day or every other day, or where they're using them in higher education to screen students every several days. That's when they perform really quite well as well.
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: UK as well as sports leagues are using these antigen tests in order to figure out who can re-enter society. And so a lot of Public Health experts are wondering why the US is not following this as well. But that's where things stand for right now.
ZACK GUZMAN: Anjalee, you mentioned the pressure that the CDC is facing off the isolation guidelines change, dropping that from ten days to five days. They're still asking people to wear masks.
There's also pressure coming from Congress about the CDC's move to let cruise lines continue to operate. I saw tweet from Senator Blumenthal yesterday calling them Petri dishes, which is a gauntlet thrown down in my eyes.
I'm not sure if you feel the same way. But clearly, I think a lot of concerns about safety aboard those ships.
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Absolutely, especially as we've seen the number continue to rise of cases on board these cruise ships. About 90 are now being called on to be investigated. So really a lot of concern there.
And this goes back to really that risk evaluation, right? And that's exactly where the CDC is sort of placed right now in having to make a determination on whether or not they should continue with this.
We saw early on in the pandemic, of course, travel severely impacted. And the idea behind even these new isolation guidelines to help with the labor shortage in certain sectors and make sure that we're not entirely shutting down.
Going back to that interview with Dr. Fauci, he did also say that one option is to really just shut down the economy. But the American-- American people will not really stand for that.
And so it seems like that's really what the administration has to contend with. And we'll see exactly what the CDC does about this.
BRIAN CHEUNG: Yahoo Finance's Anjalee Khemlani, thanks so much.