Increased testing over the holidays uncovers a record-breaking number of new COVID infections.

With the seemingly less severe but more contagious Omicron variants spreading like wildfire,

the question is, is it time to shift the way we track the virus?

Plus, COVID callouts and bad weather lead to thousands of canceled flights over the Christmas holiday.

The question is, will the return home be any less complicated?

And NASA launches into space its largest and most powerful telescope to date.

The question is, what exactly are scientists hoping to learn?

It's way too early for this.

Good morning and welcome to way too early, the show that wishes it asked for that telescope for Christmas.

I'm Jonathan Lemire on this Monday, December 27th, and we'll start

with the news. The highly contagious Omicron variant continues to fuel record-breaking surges in COVID

cases. Increased testing over the holidays has uncovered about 200,000 new infections per day.

In New York State alone, more than 400,000 people were tested on Christmas

Eve, not including the at-home rapid tests, and nearly one and eight of those came back positive.

The state reported nearly 50,000 new cases Sunday, breaking the record it had set the day before.

Florida reported nearly 33,000 new cases on Christmas

Day, also breaking its record from the previous day. Over the weekend, public health expert,

Dr. Ajishya said it may be time to shift the most common metric used to track the pandemic.

For two years, infections always preceded hospitalizations, which preceded

deaths. So you could look at infections and know what was coming. Even through the Delta

wave, that was true, because it was largely unvaccinated people who were getting infected.

Omicron changes that. This is the shift we've been waiting for in many ways, where we're moving to a

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