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The COVID-19 omicron variant is “just raging around the world,” the White House’s top medical adviser said Sunday as President Joe Biden prepares to issue “a stark warning of what the winter will look like” for unvaccinated Americans. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease expert, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “the real problem” for the U.S. hospital system is that “we have so many people in this country who are eligible to be vaccinated who have not yet been vaccinated.” (Boak, 12/19)

After spending more than 12 years as director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Francis Collins is retiring this weekend. But he's no less worried about the public health agency's latest pandemic curveball. As the omicron variant threatens record-breaking rates of infections in the U.S., Collins departs with a warning. If Americans don't take COVID-19 seriously, the country could see 1 million daily infections, he said. "We cannot afford to let down our guard," Collins told NPR's Scott Detrow in an interview with Weekend Edition. (Bowman, 12/19)

President Biden plans to speak about the Omicron variant on Tuesday, a White House official confirmed to CBS News. Mr. Biden's speech comes as the nation sees a spike in COVID-19 cases. "Building off his Winter Plan, the President will announce new steps the Administration is taking to help communities in need of assistance, while also issuing a stark warning of what the winter will look like for Americans that choose to remain unvaccinated," the official said. (Ake and Reardon, 12/18)

Outgoing New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is urging the Biden administration to send help as the Covid-19 Omicron variant rises dramatically in the city's five boroughs. The variant's lightning-fast spread in the city forced the cancellation of Radio City Music Hall's annual "Christmas Spectacular" over the weekend and led Saturday Night Live to broadcast without a live studio audience and with a smaller cast. (Garcia, 12/19)

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday that New York City will be opening more testing sites amid the spike in COVID-19 cases and fears of the new Omicron variant. With long lines at testing sites reported throughout the city, de Blasio said the "world has changed" and the demand in testing is "unlike we have ever seen before, just like we have a surge in cases just like we have never seen before." (Linton, 12/19)

The swift arrival of a new coronavirus variant has rekindled economic anxieties in Washington, as congressional lawmakers, business leaders and consumer advocates begin to worry whether there is enough federal aid to shield Americans from another round of financial despair. Over the course of the nearly two-year pandemic, Congress has committed nearly $6 trillion toward combating the contagion and bringing a battered economy back from the brink. But some of the most significant programs to keep businesses afloat and help households pay bills have expired or run out of funds, raising new risks for the future of the country’s recovery, particularly as the omicron variant wave begins to take hold. (Romm, 12/19)