i'm alison morris in new york where it is 1:00 p.m., 10:00 a.m. out west. a lot to get to.e for people who test positive for covid but are asymptomatic. >>> a killing spree in the denver area kills four people, police are searching for a motive. >>> plus moments from now, officials in richmond, virginia will be opening a time capsule discovered yesterday under a statue of robert e. lee believed to be buried more than 130 years ago. >>> but we begin with those new cdc guidelines which cut in half the recommended covid-19 isolation time. people who test positive but have no symptoms should now quarantine for five days, not ten, citing evidence that it is most transmissible two to three days after symptoms first surface. dr. fauci defending the change. >> if you look at the chance of getting a transmission in that second half of that ten day period, it is considerably less than in those first few days. so on balance, if you look at the safety of

alison morris picks up the coverage right now. >>> a good thursday morning to you. i'll alison morris in for craig melvin. the u.s. shattered another pandemic record. the day before new year's eve, the country has blown past 400,000 new daily cases. three days in a row. and recorded more than 2 million new cases since this time last week. and while we've been paying attention to the spikes in the northeast, the south is now seeing the quickest case growth since the start of december. doctors sounding this alarm. >> we are probably in store for at least four weeks, maybe even longer of a significant surge in cases here in the united states. >> johnson & johnson out with positive news about the vaccine's effectiveness against the highly transmissible omicron variant. we'll dig into that in moments. also in a few hours, president biden is scheduled to have that high stakes phone call with vladimir putin. at the center of it all, the tens of thousands of russian troops gathering for weeks on the ukrainian border. plus breaking on the economy. new weekly jobless claims a

i'm alison morris in for craig melvin. we prepare to ring in the new year, and the number of covid cases raging across the country. for the second day in a row the u.s. is shattering its own record with more than 584,000 cases on thursday. plus in colorado fast-moving wildfires have destroyed nearly 600 homes. look at that. and forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate. the governor declaring a state of emergency and president biden warning russian president vladimir putin to deescalate tensions with ukraine during a phone call on thursday, saying if moscow takes military action yrks the u.s. and its allies will respond decisively. we begin this hour with the coronavirus. >>> the number of cases skyrocketing. over 54 million covid cases in the u.s. since the pandemic started. that's according to the latest nbc news tally. the faa is warning of more airline delays today because of the omicron variant and the weather. saying that an increased number of faa employees have tested positive for covid-19. according to flight

alison morris picks up the coverage right now. >>> a good thursday morning to you.attered another pandemic record. the day before new year's eve, the country has blown past 400,000 new daily cases. three days in a row. and recorded more than 2 million new cases since this time last week. and while we've been paying attention to the spikes in the northeast, the south is now seeing the quickest case growth since the start of december. doctors sounding this alarm. >> we are probably in store for at least four weeks, maybe even longer of a significant surge in cases here in the united states. >> johnson & johnson out with positive news about the vaccine's effectiveness against the highly transmissible omicron

first, my friend alison morris picks up our coverage right now. >> it is 1 p.m.st. 10:00 a.m. on the west. we start this hour with a massive increase in covid cases. a massive shortage of testing and massive chaos at the airports. new covid cases are at levels the u.s. hasn't seen since president biden's inauguration. over 1 million americans tested positive for covid in the past week. and experts fully expect the case numbers to go up after the holiday celebrations. >>> this morning the president met with governors reiterating his commitment to providing states with federal help. >> my message to the governors is simple. if you need something, say something. and we're going to have your back in any way we can. last week we took steps to bolster support for you with number one, more capacity to get shots in arms. >> many states set covid records over the past week. we'll check in on new jersey in a moment. they hit the highest number of covid cases ever on christmas day. and yesterday delaware, hawaii, maryland, new jersey and virginia set new seven-day average

alison morris picks up the coverage right now. >>> good wednesday morning.ve a busy hour coming up. starting with yet another grim milestone in the u.s. fight against the coronavirus pandemic. there have now been more than 53 million total covid cases in the u.s. since the start of this pandemic. that's according to an nbc news tally. it's nearly one sixth of our entire population. more than the population of all of south korea. with those numbers hangingve

alison morris picks up the coverage right now. >>> good wednesday morning. we have a busy hour coming up. starting with yet another grim milestone in the u.s. fight against the coronavirus pandemic. there have now been more than 53 million total covid cases in the u.s. since the start of this pandemic. that's according to an nbc news tally. it's nearly one sixth of our entire population. more than the population of all of south korea. with those numbers hanging over our head, the white house covid response team to set to give an update on how they're supporting overwhelmed hospitals as the surging omicron variant marches across the country. a disturbing up tick in children hospitalized with the virus. we'll take you to the covid briefing when it starts. >>> we're on verdict watch in elizabeth holmes' trial, and the closely watched sex trafficking trial of ghislaine maxwell. we'll bring you the latest as we wait for any signs of a verdict from both juries. >>> plus the political world saying farewell to a giant of the senate. harry reid of nevada died. how pe

alison morris picks up the coverage right now. >>> good morning. happy new year's eve to yo