Omicron cases are falling in some parts of the country, hospitalizations rise

Yahoo Finance's Anjalee Khemlani discusses the latest on Omicron cases, COVID-19 hospitalizations, and the White House's initiative to distribute free at-home coronavirus testing.

Video transcript

ADAM SHAPIRO: All right, let's get back to Anjalee Khemlani. We were talking about the falling number of cases in parts of the country with the Omicron surge. Anjalee?

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: That's right, Adam. So we are seeing some areas of the country start to show some signs of a fall, and that includes New York. Of course, we saw early on the rise start really over there, and in the Northeast in general. Meanwhile, we have to keep track, of course, and-- sorry-- and that was a reduction of about 47%, according to New York governor in the past week.

Meanwhile, hospitalizations is another number we're-- we're keeping close track of, and that jumped to 160,000 nationwide, a new high. So as we're-- as we're seeing some cases in some parts of the country fall, we are still seeing those concerning hospitalization numbers, and we know from previous waves that you have to wait a few weeks before we see what the fallout is on-- on death. So we're still waiting to see that, as well as how this variant continues to make its way across the country.

Meanwhile, a quick point on COVID at home tests. We know that the Biden administration is launching a website to help get four tests to every home. We have already seen that site launch a day early. It was supposed to launch actually tomorrow. There you see it on your screen, covidtest.gov.

If you go there now, it will redirect you to a United States Postal Service website, which will then allow you to make those requests. Now, a quick note on that, that we are seeing some reports on social media that if you live, say, in a multi-family home or an apartment building, it is glitching with some not being able to be recognized for different apartment numbers within a single address. So just a note on that. No word yet on if that has been fixed. But as it stands right now, the website is live. Back to you.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Anjalee, thank you very much.