is now averaging about 640,000 new cases of covid per day, that's according to johns hopkins. while it's a big number, a significant drop over the past two weeks. now to other covid news making headlines around the world. austria is joining a list of several european nations that have announced the easing of coronavirus restrictions, even though infections there are still high. denmark will lift all covid measures starting tuesday. the country has high levels of immunity due to high vaccination rates and previous infections. meanwhile, many countries in eastern europe are being hard-hit by the spread of omicron. romania, poland, and hungary are among the nations reporting high number of daily infections last week. and in israel, the number of serious covid cases has reached 1,000 for the first time in nearly a year. even so, one coronavirus expert that the country has passed the peak of its omicron wave. joining us now are thathadas gon jerusalem and scott mclane in london. we're seeing a continuation of a trend we've been seeing in some european countries. cases still high, r

. >> according to johns hopkins university, more than 2200 americans are dieing from covid-19 every day. but there is some sign of hope. daily numbers of infections and hospitalizations are dropping. more people are getting vaccinated. cnn's alexandra field reports. >> my message would be just hang in there. >> reporter: easier said than done for many americans, but as exhaustion with the pandemic grows, so do signs of hope. omicron cases coming down in much of the country, and promisingly, new data shows vaccination numbers are going up a bit during the omicron surge. a new kaiser family foundation study found 77% of americans have received at least one dose of the covid vaccine compared to 73% in november when vaccination rate has stagnated. and more proof of how well vaccines work. according to the cdc, unvaccinated seniors were 52 times more likely to be hospitalized with covid in december, than seniors who were fully vaccinated and boosted. >> let's keep working on reporting with therapeutics and vaccines and make sure there's plenty of them. so whenever the next variant hits, we'l

. >> reporter: and on that infectiousness, data from johns hopkins shows more than a quarter of case reported since the pandemic began were reported in the last month. separately, dr. rochelle walensky says those eligible to be boosted and haven't been are not considered up to date on their vaccinations. and that the cdc is looking to pivot language around what it means to be fully vaccinated. i'm omar jimenez, cnn, chicago. >> dr. robert wachter is the chair of the department of university of medicine in san francisco and joins me now, he's also the author of the book "the digital doctor, hope, help and harm at the covid computer age." thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> when you look at infection rates, they are soaring, but the w.h.o. says in some countries cases hav s s have peaked. and here in the united states, some cities like washington, d.c., new york and cleveland are also seeing infections starting to level off or decline. what's your assessment? how much hope should that give us? >> a tremendous amount of hope. i think when we saw the south africa curve go up like a r

. >>> according to data from johns hopkins university, the u.s. crossed 65 million total coronavirus cases on saturday. that number has been fueled in recent days by the fast-spreading omicron variant. as you can see here, places like arkansas, california, oklahoma and oregon have been especially hard hit. this comes as the u.s. crosses a new threshold, 850,000 total deaths so far during this pandemic in the united states alone. officials are hoping to combat the rise of infections by making testing more available. as of saturday americans are able to get reimbursed with home tests. >>> now beijing has reported its first case of the omicron variant less than three weeks before that city hosts the winter olympics. authorities have sealed off the neighborhood where the case was found and have begun mass testing in the area. the infected person has not traveled recently outside of beijing. cases on thursday have been confirmed of omicron. seven cities are fighting the highly transmissible variant. >>> this weekend saw protests across europe. i'm join

. >>> now according to data from johns hopkins university, the united states crossed 65 million total coronavirus cases on saturday. that number has been fueled in recent days by the fast-spreading omicron variant. as you can see here, places like arkansas, california, oklahoma and oregon have been especially hard hit. this comes as the u6.s. crosses an even more chilling number. 850,000 deaths so far in this pandemic. >>> they are trying to make testing more available. as of saturday many americans are able to get reimbursed for home tests through their private insurance companies. i want to take a look now at other covid headlines around the world. in china, a neighborhood in beijing was locked down after the city first reported its first case in fact on saturday. that is of the omicron variant. authorities have mass testing of people living there and this comes as beijing is set to host the winter olympics in less than three weeks. germany has in the meantime tightened restrictions on bars and restaurants to help stem the surge of the omicron variant. access to limited to people fu

data compiled by johns hopkins university shows more than 1.5 million new infections on monday, mondays are usually skewed since states don't report over the weekend. pfizer said it's working on a redesigned vaccine specifically targeting the omicron variant. >> if what we want from this vaccine is protection against serious illness, the vaccines all provide that and appear to provide at least a year after getting the vaccine, it's true for all four variants including omicron variant. if you see an erosion of protection against serious illness then i think we're talking about a specific vaccine but i don't think we're there yet. >> u.s. health insurance companies will have to start covering the cost of at-home covid trop covid tests. and new rules call for eight tests a month without a prescription. >> we're working closely with manufacturers to understand what they can ship and when. we expect that the contract is structured in if a way that significant amounts are delivered on a time line, we expect to have all contracts awarded the next two weeks and americans will begin being able t

. >> reporter: and on that infectiousness, data from johns hopkins shows that more than a quarter of all covid-19 cases reported since the pandemic began were reported in the last month. separately, dr. rochelle walensky says those eligible to be boosted but haven't been are not considered up to date on their vaccinations, and that the cdc is looking to pivot language around what it means to be fully vaccinated. omar jimenez, cnn, chicago. >>> some countries are already seeing the omicron wave start to subside. earlier i spoke with dr. robert walker, chair of the department of medicine at the university of the california san francisco. i asked him if there was any hope that we could see the same in the u.s. any time soon. >> a tremendous amount of hope. i think when we had saw the south africa curve go up like a rocket and then come down equally quickly the hope was that that would be the pattern that we would see elsewhere. then we saw it in london and the whole uk, and now we're seeing it in -- first in the northeast where the virus hit first in the united states, but now we're see

with johns hopkins university reporting more than 2,200 daily fatalities recently. but there are some signs of hope. daily numbers for infections and hospitalizations are dropping and 77% of americans received at least one dose of a covid vaccine. the governor of new york says the state's covid cases dropped 86% in the last three weeks. hospitalizations are also down nearly 40%. but scientists are watching an omicron spin-off variant called ba.2. it's been detected in dozens of countries, including the u.s. right now, experts say there isn't a reason for alarm. >>> well, it was a noisy day in the canadian capital on satu saturday. crowds packed parliament hill in hotwa to protest cross-border mandates. police were on alert after violent rhetoric. about 90% of canada's truckers are already vaccinated. >>> austria is joining the list of several european nations who have announced the easing of covid-19 restrictions, even though infections there are still high. opening hours of restaurants and shops will be extended and the maximum number of people at events will be in

now, according to data from johns hopkins university, the u.s. has recorded a total of 69 million covid cases since the start of the pandemic. that's more than a quarter of those infections have now been reported just in this past month during, of course, the omicron surge. if we show you a look at coronavirus headlines right around the world, austria is now the first country in europe to mandate vaccines for adults. the country's parliament passed a law on thursday making it compulsory for residents over 18. now, the mandate will be enforced beginning march 15th, and violators could face nearly $700 in fines. early next month, france will start easing some of its covid-19 restrictions. sports and venues will be allowed to reopen february 2nd. later in the month bars will follow suit. and with just two weeks to go really until the start of the winter olympics, olympic officials say covid has been detected among the guests who have already arrived in beijing, but they have stressed that no infection has occurred in the closed loop which includes t

., but according to john hopkins university more than 2,200 americans are still dying every day. a new study finds that a majority of americans think that it's inevitable covid-19 will affect most of the country. but if that's the case, what's an acceptable level of infection? here's what america's top infectious disease expert had to say. >> when you have over 2,000 deaths, 150,000 hospitalizations, and you have people who are now getting infected to the tune of somewhere around 700,000 a day, we're not there yet. where we want to be is that sufficient control, a level of control that does not disrupt us in society, does not dominate our lives, does not prevent us to do the things that we generally do under normal existence. that would be a level of infection, but more importantly concentrating on the severity of the disease, hospitalizations and deaths, that fall within the category of what we generally accept. we don't like it, but we accept it with other respiratory viruses. >> and dr. fauci says he's keeping a close eye on the omicron spin-off variant as it becomes the domin