her youngest son to be a united states senator. >> he's talking about his mother there. this comes as security is ramping up in washington, d.c. coming up a live report on what's happening and unfolding in the world of politics this hour. and time for round two. health leaders rolling up their sleeves to get their second shot. the third hour of "today in the bay" continues right now. good wednesday morning. i'm scott mcgrew. marcus washington has the whole week off to himself. >> and i'm laura garcia. we'll check in with mike in a little bit. he has news on the morning commute. first kari this morning. another round of rain coming our way. this one centered in a certain area. it looks like the north bay will be the lucky ones to get

some rain. we still have storm ranger powered up and it's scanning a clear start for you on this wednesday morning. to the north of us as this storm system moves in it will continue to weaken. it looks like as it moves into the north bay some light rain. mike, what's the update on the richmond-san rafael bridge? the breaking news there, that crash blocked all westbound lanes. you see the impact it caused. a big backup across the span now over there on richmond and you can't get out of richmond easily there. though it's stopped on this view here as you look at your sensors on the map, we have one lane over on the san quentin side, a tow truck had to go the wrong way on the upper deck to clear some of the vehicles. looks like they're making progress. one lane is open.

that's good recovery for mid span still backed up. if you're heading to marin county you have to head up the golden gate bridge. back to you, scott. mike, there's so much going on in the world but the u.s. senate runoffs in georgia, nbc news now projecting democrat raphael warnock has defeated incumbent kelly loeffler. democrat jon ossoff in the last hour tweeted a victory declaration against republican david perdue, but that doesn't make it true. nbc news still not calling that race. that is still razor thin. tracie potts, you're watching georgia as well as what's happening on capitol hill this morning. it's just an extraordinary day for politics. >> reporter: two big stories both of which affect the country and its politics and its

government. watching the race in georgia particularly where they're still counting whether republicans or democrats control the senate. here today the senate and the house will certify the presidential race. but there are options inside and outside the capitol. pro-trump protests are drawing thousands to the nation's capit capitol. >> i came here to support donald trump. >> reporter: there have been six arrests including the leader of the proud boys who has been banned from the city. president trumppeak s at a save america rally thisorning as lawmakers gather to certihe t presidential election with vice president pence presiding. the president tweeted falsely that if vice president mike pence comes through for us we will win the presidency. but pence only announces the results. he can't change them. a person close to the vice president says he'll follow the

law. at least 13 republican senators, dozens in the house, plan to object. >> this is about the integrity of our elections and about taking a stand. >> you have the president and republican senators essentially taking a flamethrower to our democracy. >> reporter: the options pl s m delay but not stop declaring joe biden the winner. overnight nbc declared a winner in one of georgia's two senate races. >> i am going to the senate to work for all of georgia. >> reporter: raphael warnock projected to defeat kelly loeffler. she did not concede. the race between david perdue and jon ossoff still too close to call this morning. that race will decide which party controls the senate. georgia officials say they still have thousands of ballots to count in several counties, provisionals, military ballots.

it could take them a couple days to come up with results. >> and the whole world will be watching. tracie potts, thank you so much. today's certification in congress prompting bay area rallies on both sides. a group plans to hold a rally at the grand century mall shopping center. they'll have a car caravan afterwards. taking a live look at gilroy where at least 10% of the emergency room staff have tested positive for coronavirus. officials confirm eight of its 80 emergency room staff have been infected over the last week and may be linked to the christmas day outbreak at the san jose kaiser e.r. that led to one death. our kris sanchez is digging in and the latest response from kaiser. a live report in about 30

minutes. governor newsom is sending out an sos asking for help to treat california's surge. "today in the bay's" bob redell joins us where some health care workers will receive their second round of vaccine shots today. bob? >> reporter: good morning to you, laura. you'll recall doctors and nurses who treat covid-19 patients here in concord and other locations in the east bay received their first dose of the pfizer fact seen in mid-december. this is just after that vaccine was approved. today they will receive a second dose which is recommended for better effectiveness for the vaccine to be fully effective. yesterday marin health medical center administered its second round to health care workers. about 1,800 people at that hospital have been vaccinated with the pfizer vaccine. governor newsom is asking the federal government to deploy hundreds of medical personnel to help deal with covid-19 cases in southern california.

the state needs 500 medical workers to be deployed in the skilled nursing homes and hospitals where that surge is taking place down sewed. icu capacity at zero capacity. zero percent. the chief medical officer of marin health medical center is watching socal closely. bay area hospitals are at 5.9% capacity. the number is not great but she remains optimistic. >> based on the forecast model that the county has shared with us that we won't approach anything as dire as los angeles. of course i don't have a crystal ball so i'm crossing my fingers and we're constantly reviewing our resources. >> reporter: normally the u.s. mercy would be called in to create more beds, but right now that ship is under mandatory maintenance and is unavailable.

reporting live, bob redell, "today in the bay." >> all right. thank you very much, bob. it is 6:07. are you wondering where you are in the vaccine line? grab your phone right now and point it to the -- point the camera to the qr code there in the bottom left of the screen. that will take you to our interactive tool where you answer a few questions and you'll get a rough estimate of your place in line. point your phone camera to the bottom left of your screen. >> with the impact still playing out. the region wide shelter at home order is certainly going to extend well past friday. mayor london breed making it clear to expect at least two more weeks. santa clara county leaders will assess how to handle the ongoing

surge. the recent ambulance backups at some south bay hospitals. we told you about that yesterday on "today in the bay." here in the bay area total number of cases approaching 300,000. 283,000 infections have been confirmed. 2,700 people have died since the start of the pandemic. the mother of one of the two women hit and killed by an alleged drunk driver in san francisco has come to the bay area to bring her daughter's body home. hana abe grew up in japan. her mother will attend the remembrance at the spot where her child was killed. 60-year-old elizabeth platt also died. the suspect is a parolee and serial offender. >> homicides are up, up for arson, burglaries, up for a lot of things and we have to understand why. >> so authorities say the suspect was driving a stolen car and arrested several times in

the month prior. that was shortly after he got out of prison. records show he was never charged with any new crimes. stay away from the zoo. that's a judge's order for the man accused of stealing a lemur from the san francisco zoo last year remember the case? 31-year-old cory mcgillaway was arrested on car burglary charges. he was never convicted in the lemur theft. only connected to incriminating evidence. the lemur was taken from the zoo in october and recovered a few miles south of san francisco by preschool kids. he is facing burglary, grand theft and burglary charges. there's new concern about mountain lions in the santa cruz mountains. at least two malnourished cats have been spotted this is video posted to facebook from the ben lomond mountain lion journal. it comes days after a sickly mountain lion was captured in downtown santa cruz apartment

complex. experts say they may be having trouble in the wake of last year's wild fierce or getting sick from the fire retardant or possible rat poison. 6:10 right now. a live look at the golden gate bridge. more rain returning to the north bay today. the big question, will the rest of the bay area see rain or incoming storms. meteorologist kari hall, how are we looking? we're looking good for the north bay. that's where this much-needed rain is going to be coming in. right now we're starting out with dense fog and visibility very low in parts of marin as well as sonoma county. once again that rain moving in for the north bay here we are at 1:30 seeing it moving closer to santa rosa with some patches of brief, heavy rain. it will move through quickly and weaken out of the for the bay.

the rain falling apart to spotty showers. i don't expect a whole lot here for the south bay. mike, you've been watching breaking news this morning, what's the update now? >> right behind me i have one of our cameras access. i see a tow truck blocking one lane still. we do have some live feeds coming in. it looks like they've stopped traffic for a short period of team. perhaps to move a vehicle there. talking about the bridge, we're looking at westbound dragging. looks like they've stopped all lanes temporarily. highway 37 to the north or the bay bridge to the south. either way out of richmond it takes about an hour to get over to the north bay, and that is a problem right now.

that is the only delay. a crash in fremont is recovering. 880 now clear. back to you. 6:12 right now. a good time to get away. southwest is offering $29 fares. the popular destinations at your fingertips if you're willing to take that risk. plus, don't throw away your old flip phone just yet. the reason verizon says keep it in the drawer. take you out to the futures right now. a loss on the dow and the major markets much more news is ahead. you're watching "today in the bay."

right now at 6:15, san jose and what to expect today and no rain. mostly clouds moving in, a cold start reaching into the upper 50s for the afternoon with some times of sunshine with the rain staying to the north. so we'll talk about that and our outlook for the next month coming up in a few minutes. and right here we're seeing a little bit of relief, some movement at the richmond side of the bridge. still jammed by a crash. one or two lanes blocked on the san quentin side. avoid the richmond-san rafael bridge. let's talk business and tech headlines. wall street set to open lower this morning. investors watching that result from the georgia runoff

election. some traders are worried the senate controlled by democrats, we don't know if that's true yet, but may very well be, could lead to higher taxes and tougher regulations on companies. it could add to additional stimulus, though, giving a boost to companies hardest hit by the pandemic. here you see the futures. the macy's hilltop mall in richmond one of 45 stores throughout the country closing for good. the iconic department store plans to close 125 stores over the next three years. they haven't totaled up how many jobs will be affected. macy's flagship store is among those closing its doors forever. this morning amazon reportedly developing a new device that listens to you for signs of sleep apnea. it sits on a night stand measures your breathing. it has been given the code name

brahms. >> i talk in my sleep sometimes. the grammy awards were supposed to take place in l.a. january 31st. the recording academy says it will happen somewhere else. the place not yet determined. some time in march. southwest having a huge sale on tickets with one-way tickets starting at $29. here is what's raising some eyebrows. the best deals are for trips from san francisco to l.a.x. and oakland to burbank. but as we've been reporting l.a. county is struggling with covid outbreaks. hospitals are full. visitors are asked to stay away or quarantine. you can purchase a ticket now and travel at a liter date. do you have any more flip phones? verizon delaying the shutdown of its 3g network indefinitely

pushing back a plan to shutter the network. the decision only affects customers who are still using their existing devices. they can no longer activate 3g phones and doesn't offer prepaid service. they would prefer they update to nor 4g or 5g plans. i used to have a flip phone somewhere. my son, jack, when he was a toddler, he liked a phone to play with. >> i was a "star trek" fan, like the captain kirk kind of thing. >> i have a toy communicator. i have one. >> of course you do. >> i said that on tv, didn't i? >> let's check in with the nongeeks of the team, including kari. hey, i'm geeking out over the rain that we're going to see moving in and our technology

that we have here with storm ranger and we've seen the red scan there giving us a dry start to our wednesday morning, if you're about to head out the door. if you are going to be gone most of the day make sure you have the umbrella especially in the north bay. this storm system moving in will see some -- will bring in rain for the north bay. we can see it's not widespread rain. as it moves into eureka it makes it into santa rosa by about 2:00 this afternoon. and at times some of that rain may be heavy where we see the yellows and the oranges. then notice what happens as it moves to the south, the rain just falls apart. this is what we're expecting for today as it bumps up against dry air and it's becoming a lot more spotty as it moves into the east bay. still a chance that some of that rain may move in for parts of the east bay but not expecting a lot of it south of san francisco. so we're going to have one more chance of rain and this next one comes in early on friday

morning. here we are 2:30 in the morning, 3:00. it also looks like this can be another weakening storm system as it rolls through. hey, any rain is better than nothing seeing we are in an extreme drought, looking at the rainfall totals and what one computer model is showing. elsewhere to the south a few hundredths of an inch today. looking at the outlook this is put out by the climate prediction center and they're saying for the next month there's a possibility that here in the bay area we could have above normal rainfall which would be great news because we know we do have extreme drought conditions. a couple of weak systems move through for the next couple of days.

mike, you've been watching very slow traffic across one of our commutes. yeah, kari, but i have breaking news and a change to that breaking news. i believe they've just reopened all lanes on that richmond-san rafael bridge. so overloaded with people checking they did freeze from time to time. we did see movement on the said side of the freeway. now this is the richmond toll plaza. now both lanes sound like they just reopened. we'll be changing that red sign to blue again. with lighter traffic you can make the recovery. your alternate is the bay bridge. they are adding about double your time if you're going to head over to san rafael. we should see quick improvement despite the fog that is still in the north bay. the rest of the bay recovers

through frefremont. >> thanks so much. well, dr. dre now on the road to recovery. what he's saying today after suffering a brain aneurysm. >> a hit hollywood couple and the separation of kim kardashian and kanye west. and we want to wish a very happy birthday to our amazing "today in the bay" reporter kris sanchez. like many of us, she celebrated her big day during the pandemic. luckily her family made it special with a homemade cake and gifts. you can wish kris a happy birthday on facebook, twitter and instagram. you're watching "today in the bay."

developing in wisconsin prosecutors say no charges will be filed in the police shooting of jacob blake, an officer shot him seven times in the back, partially paralyzing him in kenosha last summer. the district attorney says he could not make a case against officers who claimed self-defense adding blake was armed with a knife and resisted arrest. overnight some people took to the streets to protest the decision. jacob blake's family is vowing to keep pursuing the case. police from new york to search for the woman in the so-called soho karen case, the confrontation when she grabbed a 14-year-old boy and tackled him accusing him of stealing an

iphone. she actually left it in the back of an uber. the officers want to question her about it. rap artist dr. dre in the hospital. his attorney says he suffered a brain aneurysm. tmz says the star is in stable condition. doctors trying to figure out what caused the aneurysm. he said i'm doing great and will be back home soon. kim kardashian west and kanye west getting a divorce. the two have been separated the last few months. they have four children. 6:27 right now. coming up next, the covid outbreak continues to grow. the reason health leaders say the outbreak may be going beyond the walls of the e.r. department. and cases exploding, live from l.a. as beds fill up. and coming up here at home the latest round of help just

approved for struggling bay area businesses. you're watching "today in the bay." california phones offers free specialized phones... like cordless phones. - ( phone ringing ) - big button, and volume-enhanced phones. get details on this state program. visit right now or call during business hours.

and accessoriesphones for your mobile phone. like this device to increase volume on your cell phone. - ( phone ringing ) - get details on this state program visit right now or call during business hours. right now, 6:30, making history. so far just one projected winner in the georgia senate run-off. nbc news saying democrat raphael warnock has won the senate run-off. the nation still awaiting the final results of race that is could change the look of congress. washington, d.c., ramping up

security as congress convenes to certify the presidential election. a live report from just a minute from now on preparations to confirm joe biden as president of the united states. >> reporter: and here at home for the second time in a week another cluster of covid cases. we're look to go see if there is a connection between the two hospitals. we'll tell you what we know. the third hour of "today in the bay" continues right now. a very good wednesday morning to you. thank you for joining us. i'm laura garcia. >> i'm scott mcgrew in for marcus. he has the week off. we'll start with kari. getting ready for rain for parts of the bay area. not all of us will see the rain. storm ranger ready to track the showers. mostly later this afternoon. we can see where it is now as it moves into eureka, moving into the north bay later on today.

we'll talk about the time line and who all will see this rain as it rolls through. mike, it seems like it's improving in one major spot. the breaking news is for folks heading across from richmond to san rafael. you can take the richmond to san rafael bridge. the bad news is the toll plaza looks like this live look, you'll see folks get off the eastbound side and the sensors are very slow on the spans. all lanes and all trucks have cleared from the westbound span over to the san quentin side. you can take highway 37, any of the freeways will take about an hour. that's a big delay. that's the only delay around the bay. everything else is very smooth.

scott? for the second time in a week a covid cluster among health care workers. at least 10% of the emergency room staff at st. louise tested positive. "today in the bay's" kris sanchez is live. kris, the first thing you think of is there a connection between this one and the outbreak at kaiser san jose which is not very far away. >> reporter: right. and we know that health care workers sometimes work at different campuses. at this point the spokesperson says she's unaware of any connection. we did talk to nurses who say they know that some of the staff work at both of those hospitals and in the emergency room. santa clara health said in a statement that reads in part, personnel in the emergency department are being tested more frequently, at least every three days, as a result of these recent cases. we will also be implementing daily rapid testing of emergency

department personnel before their shift begins. that's what's happening now in testing but it is not what is required. the health order states health care providers can ask their employees to wait 14 days between tests. nfl players are tested daily. an epidemiologist toll us the public might be surprised that's far from the case for health care workers who work with patients. >> health care workers have not been tested routinely. i think that's a misconception by the public that we are getting rue team testing like teachers that have gone back to the work place have. >> reporter: some kaiser nurses told us routine testing could have limited the outbreak which is now up to 60 cases among e.r.

staff. i misspoke earlier saying 66. a person died because of complications of covid. the hospital is using the employee wearing the costume as a scapegoat. most of the e.r. workers who tested positive both here at st. louise regional hospital in gilroy and the kaiser permanente location, most of them had already gotten their first dose of the covid case. as we know that first dose doesn't protect fully. >> thanks so much, kris. 6:35 right now. statewide numbers continue to climb. california reporting more than 31,000 new cases bringing the total closer to 3 million. over 27,000 people have died. a live look in los angeles this wednesday morning where the city is hitting an unprecedented moment in the fight against covid. hospitals may start rationing care and paramedics called to make decisions on whether patients will be transported.

>> "today in the bay" has a desperate warning coming from hospital officials. >> reporter: good morning. health care workers here and across the country are bracing for the worst, the moment they'll have to decide if they can care for and who they can't. for one hospital here in los angeles that moment appears to have arrived. they've announced they've entered a crisis standard of care mode which allows them to ration care although they have not had to do that as of yet but could be days away from that eventuality posing what they say is significant risk to their patients that they have no choice. there is an overwhelming crush of covid-19 and other hospitals say they are days away as well from that eventuality. ambulances have been told to conserve oxygen, not to transport patients who are very unlikely to survive.

one doctor says that is what's necessary in order to handle the volume of patients. >> a pagiving a paramedic that authority, right now it is what we must do in order to save the majority. >> reporter: the next few days will be absolutely critical in the fight against covid-19, when we expect to see the numbers from the dreaded christmas surge. one doctor telling me if there is a surge on what is already a surge due to thanksgiving gatherings, he believes the entire health care system in southern california will completely collapse. back to you in the bay area. >> thank you so much. it is 6:37. we have a follow-up on san jose state. you may recall they went to arizona to play ball state for a

championship. some members of san jose state's football team traveling party has not yet returned from arizona. "the mercury news" says it's because of covid. it's not clear how many may have been infected or exposed. some staff members stayed on hand to provide support. the spartans ended the season with an unfortunate loss. we will continue to monitor the health of those players. the napa restaurant allowing indoor dining has reportedly backed down now according to "the chronicle." fume bistro is takeout only. it was still serving people indoors contrary to the rules. leaders have approved a $5 million fee waiver that amounts to about $1,700 savings for restaurants, about $6,000 for entertainment venues.

a florida man doing 20 years for murder is among those receiving millions of stimulus dollars from california's employee development department according to the "l.a. times'" scathing new report on the widespread fraud. some $4 billion may have been siphoned. a small fraction, $40 million, is believed to have made it to thousands of inmates in jails and prisons outside the state. the edd did not respond to "the times." did you feel it? a small earthquake, 2.7 quake centered near buchanan field at 11:25 last night. people say they could feel it in oakland. 6:39 right now. coming up we know who recently donated half a million to the effort to recall governor new m newsom. that story next. out to the big board this

morning as trading is under way. the dow mildly higher. they're waiting for the results in georgia. >> reporter: one lucky lotto player holding a ticket worth $2.3 million. the pot continues to grow as the mega millions and powerball continue to rise. you're watching "today in the bay." new year's resolutions come and go. so give your business more than resolutions... give it solutions, from comcast business.

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a live look at both atlanta and washington. about 7:moils apart but this morning they may as well be side-by-side. voters in the peach state deciding who will have the balance of power in congress. >> you can see ballot counting resuming. the state's first black senator preparing to head to capitol hill. raphael warnock projected the winner over incumbent senator kelly loeffler. the other race still too close to call. "today in the bay's" tracie potts joins us live with more on that and tight security as well. tracie? >> reporter: good morning. there is a lot going on here but let's start in georgia. that senate race still hangs in the balance but one already called by nbc news and another network. raphael warnock the first african-american senator defe defeating senator kelly loeffler

who has not conceded. but warnock has already declared victory. on the "today" show this morning talking about the significance of this win. >> we proved that with hope, hard work, and the people by our side, anything is possible. >> reporter: and that other race that's so cricalti now because this one race will determine who controls the senate. jon ossoff and david perdue deadlocked. ossoff is leading by about 16,000 votes, but they are still counting in three counties including around atlanta which is heavily democratic and democrats win, and they have to win one more seat to win control of the senate.

security is tight. the senate races congress is counting the votes from the presidential election, from the electoral college today. those certifications have been sent in and the count begins with more than 100 republicans planning to oppose that and demonstrations already happening in and around washington to oppose it. >> you're in and out of capitol hill all the time. i know officials in the city itself are telling people to stay away including federal workers because of the risk here. tell me about the mood there. >> reporter: the national guard has been called out for this rally where the president is supposed to speak this morning. they first said they would have 10,000 people and then organizers tripled it to 30,000 based on what they're hearing. the mayor did say if you don't need to come in, don't come into

washington today. i'm not hearing people who are afraid to. in fact i've heard people say they're going to go out and counterprotest, and that's the concern that the protests, the demonstrations and counterprotests could turn violent. >> leave it to the national guard. >> exactly, just clashes. thank you, tracie. learning more about the company that recently donated half a million in efforts to recall governor newsom. prov 3:9 says the sole donor of the money is a man who believes pandemic restrictions on indoor worship violate religious freedom. the company says the donor's name is john kruger. it tells "the chronicle" the llc funds charitable work using its proceeds. the recall has reached 1 million signatures. organizers need 1.8 million by mid-march to qualify for a

recall election. what would you do with more than $400 million? it could be yours with mega million and powerball jackpots well each over that apartment. there was no jackpot winner last night. one lucky winner did walk away with a couple million dollars. "today in the bay's" cierra johnson is live. folks are lining up separately, six feet apart, to get their big chance to win. >> reporter: yeah, good morning. what would you do with more than $400 million? the first response for many people to retire. they have their sign lit up. this location was where a $75 million ticket was sold in 2008. the owner said it was an exciting time and hoping for a big winner here. of course you can see the

number, the winner was not selected so the number has gone up to $490 million, rolling over since the middle of september. 17.3 million winning tickets sold at all prize levels including some worth more than $1 million. one sold in contra costa. brentwood $2.3 million for someone walking around in the bay area right now. an increase of people stopping by to buy these tickets. we know the chances are slim you actually winning, but how slim are your chances? well, you have 1 in 300 million chances of winning. there is still a chance you can win but the chances are very unlikely. but if you do win you will definitely win big here. cierra johnson for "today in the bay." >> cierra, don't crush my dreams.

>> so she's saying there's a chance. >> i don't want to get hit by lightning. >> 600 times, yeah. >> the news always does that, right? you could win this but you have a better chance of being hit by lightning. let's check in with kari and mike. good morning. good morning, as we watch to see we'll be watching out to see if we can get some rain and storm ranger powered up, this new round of rain moving in. it's well to the north of us and just now making it into eureka and approaching redding. it will make it into the north bay. it is weakening. that's why i'm saying if. the models are showing rain for the north bay. here we are at lunch time.

a pretty decent heavy amount of rain moving in. only some light rain moving into san francisco, parts of the peninsula and a slight chance of rain for the east bay. i don't think we'll see much of anything for the east bay, not with this round. as we head to friday morning, i will stop it here and there could be more rain moving in. a few chances is better than nothing. there's a nice little soaking and then for parts of the east bay, it's going to be just a few hundredths of an inch. just a couple sprinkles driving home from work. what the climate prediction center puts out for the next

month, they are saying here in the bay area we could get above average rainfall over the next month which is great news because with la nina now that we have that going on, those cool pacific sea surface temperatures, it usually drives the storm track further to the north and that's what we've seen for much of the season. there are weak storms. then we go into a dry weekend and look at early next week, our temperatures could start to warm back up into the mid-60s. let's head over to you, mike. you've been watching the commute. what's the update? kari, a great update. to the richmond-san rafael toll plaza, westbound finally shows movement over on the toll plaza side. it is moving. some lanes are already clearing. the map shows you after they cleared the crash on the san quentin side, the decline, it

took a while, about four, almost five miles of backups and that's why the recovery is taking about half an hour there. highway 37 slow, typical there. a little slowing on the span. the richmond-san rafael bridge is clear. fog in the north bay and the rest of the bay shows a great, easy drive. back to you. mike, happening now a uk court has denied julian assange bail. this comes days after the same court decided the wikileaks founder can't be extradited to the united states. assange published classified military documents and diplomatic messages back in 2010. the yunited states wants to charge him with espionage. coming up next, a quick look at our top stories including ready for round two and the final dose. a live report on the east bay health care workers rolling up their sleeves for their follow-up vaccine shots. you're watching "today in the bay."

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cases are tied to christmas day outbreak at kaiser san jose e.r. which led to one death. our kris sanchez did talk to one worker who insists people worked at both facilities. we'll continue to follow this developing story with more details on our midday newscast at 11:00 a.m. governor newsom is sending out an sos to the federal government asking for help to treat california's covid surge. >> bob redell live in concord where some health care workers will receive that second round of vaccine. >> reporter: the doctors and nurses who treat covid-19 patients in concord behind me will receive that second dose. you'll recall they received the first dose of the pfizer vaccine back in mid-december after the government approved the vaccine, that second dose was necessary for the vaccine to be effective. yesterday marin health medical center administered its second

round of shots, so far about 1,800 people have been vaccinated with the pfizer vaccine. governor newsom is asking the federal government to deploy hundreds of medical personnel. the surge that we're seeing in southern california. the state needs 500 medical workers to be deployed into skilled nursing homes and hospitals where the surge is taking place down south. icu capacity in the san joaquin valley in the southern california area right now at zero percent capacity. normally the federal government would send in the "uss mercy" ship to create extra bed space but right now that is under mandatory maintenance and is unavailable. based on the forecast model the county has shared with us we won't approach anything as dire as los angeles. of course, i don't have a crystal ball so i'm crossing my fingers. we're constantly reviewing our resources.

>> reporter: that was the chief medical officer who has been watching the situation in southern california closely. she points out the bay area hospitals from sonoma to monthry are at 5.9% capacity. and that number, of course, is not great. again, reporting live, bob redell, "today in the bay." thanks so much, bob. take a peek outside from the south bay on this wednesday morning. the sun's arrival overlooking san jose this morning. the rain will arrive at least in the north bay. yeah, we are going to see that rain working from north to south and a lot of the areas in the south bay and the peninsula may not see a lot out of this system. it will dry out tomorrow but another chance of rain early on friday morning before we get to more dry weather for the weekend. mike, what is going on now for

the commute? kari, the backup goes for about a mile into richmond itself or out of richmond. the deal is it was a crash on the san quentin side of the span. it's cleared but is taking quite a while for that backup to clear from the two lanes across that span. as we look at the san mateo bridge, westbound no delay. things are moving smooth over the high rise into the peninsula. this is represent testify, this shot, of the rest of the bay. the only backup at the richmond bridge. that's great stuff. enjoying looking at live cameras in the morning with a little bit of mist and fog around the bay. >> yes, certainly wintertime in the bay area. it looks like some people are headed to work. others just working from home on this wednesday morning. thank you for joining us. >> and, of course, working hard on the top of the mountain is

storm ranger watching the latest rain come in. we'll have details at nbcbayarea.com and full coverage of politics throughout the day. you're watching "today in the bay." the "today" show starts right now. good m good morning, breaking overnight, stunning upset. nbc news projects that raphael warnock is going to win his runoff election to become the first black senator from the state of georgia. >> georgia, i am honored by the faith you have shown in me. >> this morning, reverend warnock joins us live as control of the united states senate comes down now to one final battle. democrat jon ossoff leading at this hour in a race too close to call. we're live in georgia next.