The highest seven-day average of new COVID cases in the U.S. since January, the lead starts

right now.

Work needs to be done, presented by acknowledging what most Americans already know about testing

inadequacies, as the Omicron variant tears across the United States.

A 14-year-old girl in a California store dressing room killed by a police officer's

stray bullet.

We're about to get a closer look at what went so wrong, and then water, water, everywhere,

at least 300,000 people dealing with floods that had left entire communities under water

and killed at least 17.

Welcome to the lead-up chick tap, where we begin today in our health lead for the first

time since taking off as President Joe Biden, joined his COVID teams' regular call with

the nation's governors, telling state leaders, tell us what you need.

This all comes as Omicron cases surge nationwide, topping Delta's peak, and the White House

continues to struggle to address the testing supply shortage during the holidays.

From Miami to New York and Turkey to Colorado, Americans waiting, sometimes for hours,

to find out if they test positive for COVID.

And right now, the U.S. is averaging close to 200,000 new COVID cases every day.

That's the highest number of cases on a daily rate since January 19, 2021, before vaccinations,

before boosters were widely available.

Perhaps some good news in all of this, hospitalizations, as of right now, are not rising as much

as cases, but CNN's Tom Foreman reports, Dr. Fauci says, that could be next, particularly

for the unvaccinated.

...