exceeded last winter surge in terms of case counts. >> experts sug sug sug sug sug s upgrades. ama: we we we we w out of california where the state is breaking records today, and not in a good way. the seven-day positivity rate is up to 20.4%, that's a record. a high number of positive test usually translates to a high number of cases. hospitalizations are also on rise but have not reached record levels yet. dan: the increased hospitalization rate means that hospitals across the bay area are reporting staffing shortages. medical experts say omicron is

affecting the medical system dramatically with more hospital staff getting sick now. >> and increasing community transmission is impacting hospital capacity throughout the state. the county reporting no icu beds available. with only two hospitals in the entire county -- what -- what -w matters worse is the dramatic staffing shortage fueled by an increase in omicron infections. >> i definitely am concerned, mainly because we are seeing our cases increase and we are not even at our peak yet. >> one of the main factors contributing is that one nurse is needed for every two patients in intensive care. >> you might have 20 beds, but if you only have enough staff to take care of 10 patients, and your capacity is reduced. >> what would you say is the

main reason why the county is facing this staffing shortage? >> one of our hospitals is having covid cases among health care providers. they are taken out of the workforce temporarily during their isolation period. were also seeing people hospitalized for other medical reasons outside of covid. >> the chief is also staffing shortage with staff members who were exposed, infected, or taking care of a family member with covid. on top of all this, many are exhausted after two years of the pandemic. >> we are still able to take care of critically ill people and that will always be our primary asian, but where we are really stretched is our ability to serve non-emergency issues that people need. >> dr. caldwell and his team are having to transfer patients to

other floors, a big deal with limited staff and bed capacity. >> 57 beds that we invoke, were running at somewhere between 36-44 and that oftentimes is including patients waiting to go upstairs. >> another factor playing a massive role in the staffing shortage is the number of days hospital staff members have been required to isolate after infection. today san francisco's deputy health director confirmed that isolation days have been reduced from 10 days to five days with a negative covid test, so hopefully it will help. ama: new guidance from the helps make sense of the shorter isolation recommendations issued last week. the cdc said if you it covid you should isolate for five days. they zero is the day you tested positive. after five days of isolation,

take a new covid test. if it is positive, go back into isolation for five more days. if negative, for five days because you may still be able to transmit the virus. dan: dr. say any mask is better than no mask, but with the omicron surge and its high level of transmission, some experts suggest that in 95 rk n95 masks offer more protection than those cloth masks. >> is your cloth mask good enough to prove -- protect you from omicron? experts say maybe not. the high transmissibility of the variant has led the california department of health to recommend avoiding cloth masks to protect yourself from omicron. >> if you wear a cloth mask in a sparsely populated area, it will be fine if you are outdoors if

you wear a mask at all. but indoors, you want to up your mask game. >> the state suggests mask paired with a cloth mask as a way to do that. the fibers of the mask are created to prevent droplets of the mask from reaching your nose and mouth. with omicron staying in the air longer than other variants, these masks can best protect you. >> you can go into a room and a person who has covid can have left, but these virus particles are still lingering in the air. as you move around from place to place, you don't want anything to get inside of you. >> his shop kee shop kee shop kp open, clients distance, and now requires the same in 95, k 95 or these other surgical masks for anyone in the shop as he sees

that better mass will offer a safer experience. >> if the numbers were where they are at last year we would have already been shut down. we want to do everything we can to make sure that our clients feel extremely safe. >> the indoor mask mandate remains in place in california until at least january 15. dustin dorsey, abc 7 news. ama: a large number of city employees have been infected and are currently at home quarantining. city leaders say the next couple of weeks are crucial as a city tries to whether this latest covid wave. while there may be a few disruption, residents should expect things to keep functioning during the search. >> transit will be running, although we are asking for your patience. frontline workers will be putting in overtime to make up for their quarantined colleagues. trash is still being picked up,

police are still on patrol and firefighters stand ready to respond. ama: as of today the police department department has the most members in quarantine at 186. dan: in the south bay, 146 for university students have tested positive for covid and are isolating in campus housing. most were identified direct -- through rapid testing kits. the university previously announced that the first two weeks of classes will be virtual. the university is also making changes to its winter sports attendance policies. stanford announcing that effective immediately, only student athlete families will be allowed to attend indoor winter sporting events and outdoor winter events will be exceeded with social distancing and masks will be required. ama: we are beginning to see some service reductions and cancellations because of the

covid search. the san jose police department announced changes to public access including temporarily barring in person filing a police reports. in san mateo county, jury trials are being suspended for the next two weeks. organizers of opens first friday canceled this month's event citing concerns about the latest covid search. dan: macy's is cutting store hours as covid cases spike. the retailer made the announcement today saying it is grappling with staffing shortages because of the covid surge. the department store will open one hour later and close one hour earlier monday through thursday. but hours friday through sunday will remain unchanged when so many shoppers are active. the changes affect stores nationwide and will continue now through the end of the month. ama: new numbers released today show record number of americans quit or changed jobs in november.

we spoke with the south by expert about the data and what we are seeing as a local level. >> the impacts on the job market have been an economic roller coaster. >> people are leaving jobs more quickly than they have been in the past. that was a trend we saw pre-covid, and when covid hit, people were holding onto their jobs. >> but the latest data shows a record 4.5 million american workers quit their jobs in november. san jose state assistant professor of economics justin reed says the reasons are varied. >> they are saying i can take that risk, there are other jobs available. part of it could lead -- part of it could be inflation. >> data daily that specifically target silicon valley. >> it looks as such things as number of businesses open, foot

traffic, and to a certain extent, what employment looks like in the local area. >> he said the n employment rate was at 12% when the pandemic first hit. now it is just above 3%. >> low unemployment, we are seeing businesses pick up. everything suggests that we have a fairly robust labor market in california and silicon valley especially. >> federal data released today is best off information gathered before the omicron surge. it is hard to speculate what the upcoming data will show but he thinks the impacts will not be seen until much later. >> january might be more telling. dan: and east bay target bay tay closed for cleanup following damage from a fire at the store. officials say it was deliberately set as a diversion. ama: plus the bay areas

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ama: san francisco police have made an arrest in the city's first homicide of the year. officers responded to reports of a shooting an apartment building on brandon street. they found a man and one of the unit suffering from a gunshot wound. he was pronounced dead at the scene. a 43 euro man turned himself in to the county jail and was booked on murder charges related to the shooting. dan: thieves set a fire at the target store in albany as a diversion and caused enough damage to close the store for at least two days. abc 7 news stopped by the parking lot earlier today and it was pretty much empty. please say the bandits struck yesterday and as they grabbed merchandise someone started a fire.

it set off the sprinklers which cause significant water damage. the thieves managed to escape. ama: jeopardy champ amy schneider hope soon continue her incredible run of good fortune on the show tonight. she revealed on twitter yesterday she was robbed on sunday a personal items including her id, phone, and credit cards. she said she is fine but had trouble sleeping. dan: they were once some of her biggest supporters.

dan: we are hearing from elizabeth holmes former mentor, one day after a jury convicted her of four of the 11 charges against her. yesterday's verdict. >> elizabeth holmes, once touted

as silicon valley's rising star, now convicted on four counts of fraud. >> i was ecstatic that some justice was done. >> a stanford professor was one of the first people to be skeptical of homes after rejecting her idea of creating a patch to deliver antibiotics. >> i said it just won't work, elizabeth, i'm sorry. >> how did she respond? >> she sat there, eyes wide open, and no, she didn't have a deep voice. she got a conviction on four counts. >> rishel is the widow of the former chief scientist of theranos, who killed himself the night before he was required to testify about the company's technology. >> he tell me he did not want his career to end like this, his words exactly, because he knew

it was a fraud and he didn't want to be associated with it. >> but the eight men and for women of the jury saw what he did early on. some still remained surprised that she was convicted on the four investor counts but acquitted on all the patient counts. >> the investors would not be sympathetic here. they had $100 million to lose. it's hard to feel sorry for them. >> she created a similar blood testing patent before homestead and said the verdict may be different if some of the patient-related testimony was not thrown out. >> the judge would not allow any discussion of the impact of bad results, such as if you are over or under coagulated you could die. that would make it more impactful. >> we won't know her full sentence for at least 1-2 months, but her defense team has 14 days to follow notice of appeal. ama: today conservative talk

show host larry elder announce he would not run for governor this year. he was a leading republican candidate in an effort to unseat governor newsom in last year's recall election. he has formed a political action committee that will focus on fundraising to help republicans when he states in the house and senate. dan: let's turn to the weather which got active once again. spencer: you may have noticed clouds lingered long into the daytime hours today and it is still a little damp out there. an area of light rain well to the north is showing up vividly here on live doppler 7. there is some light rain, here is a live view looking back toward the western sky which is rather colorful right now. 59 in mountain view, san jose

57. here is the view at the golden, looks a little bit foggy and misty there as well. 53 in napa, and the view looking back at a portion of embarcadero center. mainly dry tomorrow afternoon into thursday but the next form will arrive on friday and the weekend looks dry so far. overnight we are seeing lots of clouds and some fog as well. it will continue into the morning commute on friday and then start to taper off but clouds will linger throughout the day over much of the bay area. showers will be confined to the north bay. to the sierra where there is still some snow, showers and wet snow mixed in right now. a winter weather advisory remains in effect until 7:00 p.m.

roads are still slick and visibility is still poor. back to the bay area, a few showers in the north bay area, lowe's mainly in the upper 40's. tomorrow's highs, mixed conditions, clouds with breaks of sun here and there. friday morning, our next storm will start to swing through, bringing mainly light rain and later in the day breaking up into scattered showers. it will be a wet day with a decent amount of rainfall, up to a quarter inch or more in parts of north bay. here's a look at the seven day forecast, a couple of dry days tomorrow and thursday with the exception of a chance of right -- light rain tomorrow morning. then another storm comes in on friday. we start drying out a little bit on saturday and even dryer on sunday which will be our coldest

morning in the seven days ahead. the dry pattern continues into tuesday. not expecting wet weather at least in the early part of next week. dan: in san mateo county, crews are busy trying to clear a downed tree that closed skyline buddha bart today -- skyline boulevard today. the tree took down some power lines when it came crashing down. saturated ground is likely the reason for the tree coming down. ama: scientists are calling the discovery of dozens of new species a race against time.

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ama: a reminder that you can get our live newscast, breaking news, weather, and so much more with our new abc 7 bay area news app on apple tv, android tv, fire tv, search abc7 bay area so you can download it. dan: the california academy of sciences in san francisco celebrating a year of discovery. ama: researchers described as

dozens of new species. dan: this is really fascinating. they are critical to understanding the effect on our planet of things like, change in habitat destruction. if you weren't sure the world needed six new species of scorpions, this researcher might beg to differ. >> we talk about things in conservation, we are really talking about how we can serve humans. this is as biggest they get. >> she points to the unusual scorpion she and her colleagues collected and described this past year. they live in the tree canopy of tropical rain forests in mexico and central america. when that canopy is disturbed enough, she says they dropped from site, perhaps reflecting pressures on the rain forest itself. not unlike recent fires here in california. >> they have been experiencing

severe fires and are gone. they are missing from that ecosystem and who knows how long it will take for them to come back? >> and documenting previously undescribed creatures is a core mission at the academy. researchers identified more than 70 new species of plants and animals from sea stars around easter island to guitar bishop native to madagascar are and others discovered in the philippines. >> different species have different significance. top predators like sea stars fort sharks, when they are lost, it can have immediate effects on how the ecosystem is running. >> chief of science shannon bennett says pressures can range from climate change to human activity. the dinner find the unknown species is sometimes a

painstaking process involving high-resolution imaging and even dna analysis, but researchers say it is often a race against time. >> with citizen scientists out there documenting what is in their everyday world, we are doing it faster and better, but we need to continue to increase that rate if we are ever going to stand a chance of reducing biodiversity loss. >> a virtual event is happening this thursday. some of the researchers will join us to chat in more detail about their fines. for more information, we have links on abc7news.com. 70 new species of plants and animals. spencer: this estimate surprised me. do you know how many species go extinct every day? something like 150. and it is accelerating. dan: that's fascinating.

we appreciate your time. ama: thank you for joining us.

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tonight, several developing stories as we come on the air. the 27-hour nightmare. drivers trapped on i-95. the stunning images still coming in all day today. drivers who began their commute more than 24 hours ago, trapped after a paralyzing storm. authorities overwhelmed by the accidents. several inches of ice and snow. drivers, families with children and pets trapped with no food, water, and gas running low. a u.s. senator among them. all of it spiraling after an accident involving several tractor trailers. an amtrak train stuck for 30 hours, too. so, what happened? were authorities not ready? and what they're now saying tonight. also tonight, we're tracking two new storms right behind this. the first one hitting tonight, it could bring freezing rain to