heidi przybyla is in washington, d.c., and dr. natalie azar, a rheumatologist and an msnbc contributor. and dr. eileen marty is a professor of infectious diseases at florida international university. thank you all for being with me. dasha, let me start with you. more than 70% of new jersey residents are vaccinated. what are state officials attributing this surge to? >> reporter: jose, they're largely attributing this surge in hospitalizations to the transmissibility of the omicron evaporate. the case numbers here are just exploding. and as this virus makes its way through more and more of the population, that drives up those hospitalization numbers. the governor here calling this covid wave the omicron tsunami, because right now, there are more people hospitalized in new jersey at this point in the pandemic than at any point in the last year, in fact, the most since may of 2020. and over here at university hospital, their ceo tells us that they have seen a doubling in hospital admissions over the last seven days. but jose, it's so

i want to bring in sam brock and heidi przybyla and gabe gutierrez. in jackson hospital in miami, the fastest increases in covid cases in any state. sam, you're reporting hospitals were already facing a staffing shortage. how are they handling all of this? >> it's a 700% increase in infections in florida in two weeks. the staffing crisis right now is acute. what i'm told from many hospitals, they're sweeping the pot for health care workers by offering more money and incentive. that's only sustainable for so long. about 45 minutes away in fort lawsuiter dale, they had to shut down a labor and delivery unit because of an inability to provide enough staffing to care for those pregnant moms. that gives you a little window into how bad this has gotten. i'm at jackson health right now. they're look agent the highest number of patients they've seen at the public hospital since delta. a little bit more, actually, than the crest they hit a few months ago. that being said, it's an interesting case study here. about half the folks who are in here right now didn'

this is really hard now. >> mike memoli, heidi przybyla, dr.ven sample, thank you all. >>> we are hours away from a senate vote on changing the filibuster rules to pass a voting rights bill. we're going to check in on the plan and the latest on the two democratic holdouts. but first this morning, the fashion world is mourning the death of one of its most influential figures. andre leon talley. he died at the age of 73. he was a larger than life south who went to the jim crow south to every fashion week worldwide. he was the creative director and editor at large of "vogue". he even helped dress michelle obama when she was first lady. he advocated for more diversity in the fashion industry, advising people to use more black models. here he is on "morning joe." >> i think this is style. his style works because it's who he is. so whatever you wear, it must reflect who you are, and never take cues and say it's wrong. take cues and say it's wrong ♪ when you have nausea, ♪ ♪ heartburn, ingestion, upset stomach... ♪ ♪ diarrheaaaa.♪ try pepto bismol wit

joining me now is nbc news correspondent heidi przybyla. also with us is dr. joseph varon, the chief of critical care at united memorial medical center in houston. thank you for being with me. heidi, you spoke exclusively with the new testing coordinator at the white house. what did he tell you about what he can expect from this new program? >> reporter: jose, i just wanted to point out that the reason why these new programs are so significant is that for the first time, the federal government is really flexing its bulk purchasing power on behalf of the american people. you can go to the usps website, order your test kits, and they say they will be at your door withi 7 to 12 days. there are three conditions under which you should use these tests. first, if you have covid symptoms. second, if you know that you were exposed to covid, wait five days, then use the tests. or third, if you are in a closed setting with someone who is high risk. now, the thing that struck me most about this interview, though, jose, was that the testing coordinator said, this is not jus

joining me now, nbc's heidi przybyla and dr. ramirez, managing director at opportunity labs. heidi, let's start with you. what's the situation in maryland? >> yeah, jose, it's probably easiest to put it in market terms, there's a supply problem in the nation's hospital system. you've got less staff, because people are having to quarantine because they're sick or they're just testing positive, and you've got more patients coming in. not just covid positive, but people who have just regular conditions, coming in to be treated. and then the issue that doesn't get enough attention, jose, is people flooding the ers, just to get covid tests. we're seeing this here in other places, so here's what they're doing. here, they've created an overflow facility here, where you've got three floors in this facility, that are devoted only to treating covid patients, and then a week ago, jose, they also created a testing drivethrough site here to try to alleviate some of the pressure on those ers, where people are coming in, when they shouldn't, just to get tested. so doctors i speak with, jose,

joining us heidi przybyla and dr. kavita patel former obama white house health policy director. dr. is yet to come. how bad do you think it could get over the next couple of weeks? >> chris, i think a majority of the country will continue to see increasing cases and we could see daily cases topping a million. they've probably really are at over a million because of underreporting, we don't have the actual numbers, but that puts us as a nation kind of going through omicron surges in various parts of the country until the end of the month and then, of course, it doesn't mean that it declines to zero, chris. february will be a rough month, too, as hospital cases trail the actual positives. >> so as we're talking about omicron pushing hospitals, heidi, we have mother than two dozen states including maryland and virginia who are really having trouble keeping up with the patient load, and there's also some controversy involving an executive order by the just sworn in virginia governor. tell us about that. >> reporter: chris, a new executive order from the virginia governor banning mask ma

with me now, nbc's heidi przybyla and dr. anderson. heidi, let me start with you. through the larger points the president made about this pandemic on wednesday in his news conference, and specifically about his administration's response to it. >> reporter: yeah, craig. just acknowledging how people are feeling with those numbers you just mentioned. exhausted. demoralized. i a bit of a national therapy session, and acknowledging some specific things that maybe he could have done differently or better. like testing. started with a testing supply earlier. a lot of it was just reframing the conversation around covid with this new variant that's evading vaccines. as covid being something that we are going to conquer which is what we heard a lot of during the campaign to something that we're going to manage and that things will get better. here's what he said with that things will get better message. >> billions of dollars made available. that's there. not every school district has used it as well as it should be used. but it's there. so i, i think as time goes on, it's

with us, nbc chief white house correspondent peter alexander, heidi przybyla and dr. gupta. there are at the people's house, the president set to meet with his covid response team just a few hours from now. how is the white house strategy changing to meet this new phase in the pandemic? >> reporter: let's start with a snapshot of this phase of the pandemic. the cdc within the last few minutes announce right now that 95% of the covid cases in this country are from the omicron variant. just 5% of them believed to be from the delta variant. now, obviously this comes amid that rapid surge of cases we've seen around the country with the country hitting new highs. the white house insists that the focus should not be on case counts, but hospitalizations and deaths. the white house has said that the desire of those vaccines is to try to limit severe illness. as a function ofcases being so high, hospitalizations have gone up as well. hospitalizations now in 20 states have reached a high. certainly there are alarming numbers as it relates to children as well. the president will be bri

heidi przybyla, thank you. >>> let's go to a city where this education issue is more acute which is chicago and that's where we find mora barrett. the chicago's teacher union they voted not to come in and not to teach in person. that shut down the school system. what's it going to take to get the teachers to come back? >> what they're asking for is more safety precautions and not happy with what public schools have been providing and during the entirety of this pandemic something i have been reporting in chicago for at least a year now since i lived here and that is something that is consistent between the teachers union and chicago public schools. and the teacher's union pushing back overnight voting to go remote without approval from the school district. that's why the school district turned around and canceled classes here. this is a very quick response that we saw overnight this happening in chicago. but the reality is a lot of cities are facing this issue around remote schooling like the issue you're discussing with heidi. but what we're seeing with chicago the highest positivity rate

joining me now is nbc news correspondent heidi przybyla at the university of maryland laurel medical ebony hilton, associate professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the university of virginia. so heidi, what are they doing in maryland right now with just the knowledge for everybody that just because cases are going down in some parts of the country, just because omicron is not as bad for the vaccinated, the sheer number of cases means hospitals will feel the brunt of this once again. >> yeah, katy, the numbers are tracking with what we're seeing in dozens of other states. statewide, 85% of the beds here that are staffed are in use, a combination of more patients, fewer staff, and then there's a third category that hasn't gotten enough attention, katy, those individuals rolling into emergency rooms in order to get their covid tests. in laurel what they did here is three entire floors of this hospital are devoted only to covid in order to alleviate some of the pressure on the nearby main hospitals. number two, they created a drive-through testing site staffed by the n