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COVID live updates: US reports 1 million daily COVID cases after holiday backlog

January 4, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.4 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 827,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

About 62% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Jan 04, 9:54 am
Sweden’s King and Queen test positive for COVID-19

Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia tested positive for COVID-19 last night, according to a palace statement.

Both are fully vaccinated and have received a third booster shot.

The king and queen said they have mild symptoms and are feeling well, in the statement.

They are isolating at home and contact tracing is ongoing.

Jan 04, 6:36 am
US reports 1 million new daily COVID cases

More than 1 million new COVID-19 cases were reported in the United States on Monday, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The 1,082,549 new infections were about double last week’s record daily cases, according to the university’s data. It was unclear whether the newly reported cases included backlogs from holiday testing.

The US recorded 1,688 deaths related to COVID-19 on Monday, below the record high of 4,442, set on Jan. 20, 2021, according to the university’s data.

Jan 04, 6:32 am
US reports record 325,000 new pediatric COVID infections last week

A record 325,000 children tested positive for COVID-19 last week amid the nation’s most significant COVID-19 infection surge yet, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.

Children accounted for about 17.4% of last week’s reported COVID-19 cases, down from previous weeks, when children accounted for more than a quarter of all new cases.

A total of nearly 7.9 million children have tested positive for the virus, since the onset of the pandemic.

ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos

Jan 03, 4:02 pm
New York looking into COVID-19 hospitalizations that began for other reasons

New York’s hospitals will be required to report a breakdown of how many COVID-19 patients were admitted due to the coronavirus and how many were admitted for other needs and only discovered they were infected during their stays.

During a COVID-19 briefing on Monday, Gov. Kathy Hochul cited anecdotal reports of as many as 50% of patients at some hospitals testing positive for the virus who were actually admitted for other reasons, such as car accidents.

“I just want to always be honest with New Yorkers about how bad this is,” Hochul said. “Yes, the sheer number of people infected are high, but I want to see whether or not the hospitalizations correlate with that.”

She continued, “And I’m anticipating to see that at least a certain percentage overall are not being treated for COVID.”

Hospitals will begin reporting their breakdowns Tuesday, but it’s unclear how soon the data will be publicly available.

-ABC News’ Joshua Hoyos and Will McDuffie

Jan 03, 3:11 pm
Surgeon general warns next few weeks ‘will be tough’

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy warned that COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations will continue to increase as the omicron variant rapidly spreads across the country.

“The next few weeks are going to be tough for us,” he told ABC’s “The View” on Monday. “We’re already seeing record levels of cases, and we’re seeing hospitalizations starting to tick up. We’re seeing some of our hospital systems getting strained at this point.”

Information from South Africa and the United Kingdom indicates omicron could be less severe than previous COVID-19 variants, Murthy said.

“We’re still going to see a lot of people get sick and a lot of hospitalizations, but the overall severity may end up being significantly lower,” he said.

Murthy said both South Africa and the U.K. “had a very rapid rise, but then they had a very steep fall” in cases

“I’m hoping that that’s what happens here too,” he added.

-ABC News’ Joanne Rosa

COVID outbreak in Belgian research station in Antarctica

January 4, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A research station in Antarctica is battling a COVID-19 outbreak despite being located in one of the most remote corners of the world.

Since mid-December, 16 of the 25 workers at Belgium’s Princess Elisabeth Polar Station have tested positive for the virus.

According to the French-language magazine Le Soir, the first positive COVID-19 case was confirmed on Dec. 14 in a worker who had traveled to Antarctica with a group via Belgium and South Africa.

Before arriving in South Africa, the workers were required to have a negative PCR test at least two hours prior to the flight. The employees then had to quarantine in South Africa for 10 days before taking another PCR test.

The group was again tested five days after arriving in Antarctica.

After the first infection was confirmed — seven days following arrival at the station — two more workers from the travel group tested positive.

The three patients were evacuated on Dec. 23, but the virus continued to spread throughout the station, according to Le Soir.

The workers had all been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 with at least one having received a booster shot.

All of the cases have been mild so far, Joseph Cheek, a project manager for the International Polar Foundation, which manages the outpost, told the BBC.

There are two emergency doctors on site with equipment necessary to treat patients if their symptoms become severe.

All of the scientists at the station were given the option to evacuate but they decided to stay to continue their research, according to Cheek.

“While it has been an inconvenience to have to quarantine certain members of the staff who caught the virus, it hasn’t significantly affected our work,” he said.

According to a virologist consulted by the Belgian Polar Secretariat — which manages administrative matters for the Princess Elisabeth station — it is likely that the workers were infected with the omicron variant, which makes up 99% of all COVID cases in South Africa, Le Soir reported.

All new arrivals to the Princess Elisabeth, which is the first zero emission polar station, are suspended until further notice.

The International Polar Foundation did not immediately reply to ABC News’ request for comment.

This is not the first time that a COVID-19 outbreak has been reported in Antarctica.

In December 2020, Chile announced that 36 cases of the virus had been confirmed at its Bernardo O’Higgins research station on the Antarctic Peninsula.

Despite Antarctica’s remote location, research and military stations have taken strict measures to prevent the spread COVID-19, including limiting the number of tourists and locking down bases.

In Brief: ‘Morbius’ delayed again by COVID-19; ‘Space Force’ blasting off again, and more

January 4, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Sony Pictures has delayed the release of its Spider-Man spinoff, Morbius, once again, this time from January 28 to April 1, 2022, according to Variety. The film was supposed to debut July 10, 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced the studio to move it to March 19, 2021, then Oct. 8, 2021, then January 21, before shifting yet again to the January 28 date. Morbius stars Jared Leto as the titular character, a brilliant doctor and biochemist who becomes a vampire while seeking an unconventional cure for the rare blood disease that afflicts him. Michael Keaton, Jared Harris and Tyrese Gibson also star…

Deadline reports Keanu Reeves is in talks to join Hulu’s series adaptation of The Devil in the White City, based on Erik Larson’s 2003 book that tells the true story of two men — an architect and a serial killer — whose fates were forever linked by The Chicago World’s Fair of 1893. The project would mark Reeves’ first major U.S. TV role. The Devil in the White City has been in various stages of development since Leonardo DiCaprio bought the film rights in 2010, in hopes of turning it into a feature at Paramount with Martin Scorsese to direct, according to Deadline. Hulu announced in 2019 that it was developing the project as a limited series with DiCaprio and Scorsese exec-producing and Todd Field set to direct the first two episodes…

Space Force, the Netflix comedy starring Steve Carell, will return for season two on February 18, the streaming service announced on Monday. The series follows Carell as Mark R. Naird, a decorated pilot tapped to run the newly formed sixth branch of the U.S. Armed Forces, known as Space Force. Season two, will pick up with General Naird and his underdog team having to prove their worth to a new administration while dealing with interpersonal challenges. John Malkovich, Ben Schwartz, Tawny Newsome, Diana Silvers, Jimmy O. Yang and Don Lake also star…

Jimmy Fallon reveals he tested positive for COVID-19 over the holidays

January 4, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Jimmy Fallon tested positive for COVID-19 over the holidays.

Taking to Instagram on Monday, the late-night talk show host shared the health update alongside with a picture of him isolated in a glass room.

“Hey guys, on the first day of our holiday break I tested positive for Covid,” Fallon shared, adding that he was “vaccinated and boostered” and only had “mild symptoms.”

“Thank you to the doctors and nurses who work so hard around the clock to get everyone vaxxed,” he continued. “Thank you to NBC for taking the testing protocols so seriously and doing a great job – and also thanks for putting me in the “What ‘chu talkin’ about Willis?” isolation room when they told me the news.”

When Fallon returned to The Tonight Show on Monday, he shared more details about the incident, revealing that his wife and their two daughters — Winnie, eight, and Frances, seven — traveled upstate for the Christmas holiday while he stayed put and isolated himself. However, when they too returned positive tests, Fallon called it a “Christmas Miracle” as he was able to be with them for the holidays.

“My girls tested positive as well. They’re fine, everyone is fine,” he assured. “They had the sniffles. Frannie had sniffles for like two days. Winnie had no symptoms at all. But that meant I could go home and spend the holidays with the kids, so I did.”

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Eldest Trump children won’t comply with subpoenas from NY attorney general

January 4, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Former President Trump’s eldest son and daughter have refused to comply with subpoenas issued by the New York State attorney general’s office as it conducts a civil investigation into the way the family real estate business valued its holdings.

“A dispute has arisen between the OAG and the Individual Trump Parties regarding the Subpoenas,” a document filed Monday said.

The document, filed jointly by New York Attorney General Letitia James and an attorney for the Trump Organization, said Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump will now be named as respondents in James’ ongoing inquiry, which parallels a criminal investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.

“As her investigation into financial dealing of the Trump Organization continues, Attorney General James is seeking interviews under oath of Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and Ivanka Trump,” a spokesperson for the AG’s office said. “Despite numerous attempts to delay our investigation by the Trump Organization, we are confident that our questions will be answered and the truth will be uncovered because no one is above the law.”

Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump sought to quash the subpoenas Monday evening in a motion.

Alan Futerfas, an attorney representing both Trump children, questioned James’ motives: her office is also involved in the criminal investigation of the Trump Organization.

“The goal of the subpoenas is all too clear: Attorney General James seeks to circumvent the entire grand jury process and nullify Moving Parties’ most fundamental constitutional and statutory rights by requesting that they provide non-immunized testimony to the OAG — when the OAG/DANY is jointly conducting a grand jury investigation,” Futerfas wrote in a motion to quash the subpoenas, which he said violate the rules of criminal procedure.

The former president and his company have denied wrongdoing and have attacked the investigation as political.

The ongoing criminal investigation has so far resulted in indictments against the Trump Organization and its longtime chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg on tax charges.

Prosecutors said the company had been paying Weisselberg’s rent, living expenses, private school tuition and car lease without proper reporting on tax returns. Both pleaded not guilty.

How students are returning to school during newest COVID-19 surge

January 4, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — In a hodgepodge of in-person, remote and delayed reopenings, millions of students across the country are set to head back to school after several weeks on winter break.

School districts in every state are using a variety of approaches and precautions to determine the best way to keep children and staffers safe amid the nation’s latest, and most significant, COVID-19 surge on record.

The return to school comes as the hospital admission rate among children has hit its highest point of the pandemic. Pediatric case rates are also approaching record highs.

During an appearance on ABC News’ This Week on Sunday, Dr. Anthony Fauci told George Stephanopoulos that even with the surge, he is still in support of keeping kids in school as much as possible.

“I plead with parents to please seriously consider vaccinating your children, wearing masks in the school setting, doing test-to-stay approaches when children get infected,” Fauci said. “I think all those things put together, it’s safe enough to get those kids back to school, balanced against the deleterious effects of keeping them out.”

Many districts in major cities across the country are forging ahead with reopening plans, with some requiring face masks or testing of students and staff ahead of the return as an additional precaution. However, dozens of other districts — including in Ohio, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan — are beginning the spring term remotely.

Atlanta

Citing a rapid surge in infections locally, Atlanta Public Schools will open virtually Tuesday for all students and all staff. The city plans to reopen in-person instruction on Jan. 10, according to the school district’s public guidance.

All staff are required to report to work on Monday, Jan. 3 for mandatory COVID-19 surveillance testing.

Boston

Students in Boston will return to the classroom Tuesday as the district rolls out its share of the state-supplied rapid COVID-19 tests.

Over the weekend, members of the Massachusetts National Guard began delivering 227,000 rapid COVID-19 tests to school districts across the state, to be used for teachers and staff.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Boston Public Schools Superintendent Brenda Cassellius announced Monday that so far, 155 teachers and school staffers have reported positive COVID-19 tests.

Chicago

In Chicago, students returned to class Monday, according to the school district’s public guidance.

Testing is only mandatory for unvaccinated students who traveled to an “orange” state, per the city’s travel guidance, which now includes every state except Montana.

Unvaccinated students who are close contacts of a known COVID-19 case must stay home and quarantine for 10 days. Vaccinated students who are close contacts can attend school as long as they are not experiencing any COVID-19 symptoms.

The district also distributed 150,000 take-home test kits to schools to support the return.

Cleveland

Citing a “significant rise in COVID-19 cases in the community,” the Cleveland Metropolitan School District will move to remote learning for the week of Jan. 3.

Following a professional day for staff, students will log on and follow their class schedules Tuesday through Friday.

Detroit

The spring semester in Detroit will not begin until later this week at the earliest.

Employees will be required to take a COVID-19 test on Monday and Tuesday through the district, according to the school district’s public guidance. All students are also encouraged to take a test through the district this week.

The district said it cannot begin the semester online, due to the fact that not all of its students have laptops.

School officials said they expect to announce plans for Thursday and Friday on Wednesday afternoon or evening.

Los Angeles

Staff in all Los Angeles County schools are required to wear upgraded masks — surgical mask or higher-level PPE, according to the district’s latest guidance. Students are “strongly recommended” to wear well-fitted masks.

The district is also strongly recommending that all eligible staff and students receive a booster shot.

COVID-19 testing is required for all close contacts who are permitted to remain in school immediately after exposure, regardless of vaccination or booster status.

Miami

All staff will be required to wear face masks inside any Miami-Dade County Public School facility. Students are not required to wear face coverings, but masks are “highly encouraged.”

Protocols for the enhanced sanitization and cleaning of classrooms and common areas, which were implemented at the beginning of the pandemic, will continue, according to the district.

New York City

Beginning Monday, schools in New York City will distribute take-home COVID-19 tests to any student or staff who exhibits COVID-19 symptoms or has been potentially exposed in a classroom where a positive case has been identified.

“The numbers of transmissions are low; your children is in a safe space to learn and continue to thrive. We’ve lost almost two years of education … we can’t do it again,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams told Stephanopoulos on This Week.

Unvaccinated or not yet fully vaccinated students in kindergarten through grade 12 who were in close contact to a positive COVID-19 case will no longer have to quarantine, as long as they do not have symptoms and do not have a positive COVID-19 test.

Following an exposure, all students and adults will receive a take-home rapid test kit and take two tests over the course of five days. For students in 3-K and pre-K, the quarantine policy will remain the same, meaning students who were in close proximity to a positive case will still have to quarantine for 10 days.

Newark

Newark Public Schools began the semester Monday with remote instruction to continue through Jan. 14. The school anticipates a return to in-person instruction on Jan. 18.

Seattle

In-person school in Seattle is set to resume on Tuesday. COVID-19 testing is available Monday for students and staff.

Washington, D.C.

Last month, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced that D.C. public schools would require all students and staff to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test result before returning to school on Thursday.

Schools were closed on Monday due to inclement weather faced by the district.

The district will make free rapid antigen tests available on Tuesday and Wednesday. DCPS families will need to upload their child’s negative test results.

Mom pays off $72K in student loan, credit card debt using these tips

January 4, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Mom pays off K in student loan, credit card debt using these tips

(SAN DIEGO) — A California mom is entering 2022 debt-free after paying off more than $70,000 in student loan and credit card debt.

Amanda Courtney, 36, of San Diego, said she began falling into debt as soon as she entered college, nearly two decades ago.

“There was no way for me to go to college without taking out student loans, so I knew as I was applying for colleges that I was going to have to take out loans,” Courtney told Good Morning America. “I was kind of like, well, everyone takes out student loans, right? It’s fine.”

Courtney said she took out $15,000 in loans for her freshman year of college, and then also got into credit card debt when, at 18, she got a credit card without learning about how to budget and make her payments.

Over the next few years, Courtney said she transferred to two different colleges, including at one point living back at home and attending a community college, to try to lower her student loan debt.

When she graduated from college in 2008, the U.S. was in the midst of a financial crisis and Courtney said she could not find a job. Without a job, she could also not afford to pay off her student loans, she said.

“I continued to enroll in school just so I could defer my student loans because I couldn’t afford to make the minimum payments, all while continuing to accrue more credit card debt,” she said. “And I just fell deeper and deeper into debt.”

At age 25, Courtney, who now works as an administrative assistant at a San Diego high school, got a job working in education that allowed her to start to pay off her debt, but only with the minimum payments each month. She said she quickly learned that though she had deferred making payments on her student loans by taking low-cost community college classes for several years, the interest on her debt had continued to add up.

“I was deferring my loans, but I wasn’t deferring the interest, so though I was deferring making those payments, I was adding to my balance,” she said. “I didn’t have the financial literacy to understand what I was doing and the full implications of what I was doing.”

Courtney said that because federal loans and grants did not cover her full college tuition, she got a loan through a private loan company that carried what she described as an “insane interest rate.”

In the United States, Americans owe nearly $1.8 trillion in student loans, according to the Federal Reserve.

Coming from a family that did not discuss finances or budgeting, Courtney said she “truly did not know” what she was getting herself into when she signed up for student loans.

“I didn’t understand the economics of it and the commitment of it,” she said. “I think I just had this false sense of security that I’m working and I’m going to get a degree and then I’m going to have a job that can pay off the debt so it won’t be a big problem.”

“Then reality hits and you realize that’s not how any of this works and my $15,000 in loans very quickly becomes $30,000,” she said.

Things started to change for Courtney when she started dating her now-husband and they had conversations about their finances.

“I, very innocently, early in our relationship, was like so, ‘How much debt do you have?,'” she recalled. “He looked at me very plainly and said, ‘I don’t have any debt. How much do you have?'”

Courtney said she made a decision in that moment to be honest about her financial woes, and her now-husband worked with her to build a budget, the first time Courtney had done that in her life.

“I truly lived with this mindset that everybody lives with debt. Everybody has student loan debt. Everybody has credit card debt,” she said. “Having had that conversation with my now-husband, I started to think of money differently.”

With that foundation in place, Courtney spent the next nearly eight years paying off $50,000 in student loan debt and $12,000 in credit card debt.

She made her final student loan payment in September 2021.

“It took that long because I did it while still living my life,” said Courtney, who got married and gave birth to her first child and was at one point the sole income earner for her family in those eight years. “We built things into the budget so I felt this freedom to still live my life.”

Here are Courtney’s three tips for paying off debt.

1. Create a budget that works for you.

“The first thing you have to do is you have to be honest with yourself,” said Courtney. “So for me, that meant pulling out all of my credit card statements and all of my student loan balances, and really looking at where I was at, and making a plan.”

Courtney works on what she calls a zero-balance budget, which means that she directs each dollar in her paycheck to a specific location.

“Every month, a week before payday, I can actually view my paycheck, so on that day, I rebuild my budget every single month,” she said. “I look at what I have coming in versus what I have going out and I tell every dollar where to go.”

Courtney said she made sure that even while she was focused on paying off her debt, she allowed herself to continue to live her life.

“I was honest with myself, and I made a plan, but I made a realistic plan,” she said. “You have to allow yourself to go to that lunch celebration with friends. You have to allow yourself to buy yourself a new top every now and again.”

Courtney loves to travel, for example, so she created a special travel savings account that she directed money to each month. She said this allowed her to still travel while being financially responsible.

“If I want to go somewhere, I look at do I have enough in that travel account to go,” she said. “If I don’t, then I don’t get to go.”

2. Consolidate your loans, if possible.

A few years into her debt-paying journey, Courtney said she was able to consolidate her loans into one payment, which made it easier for her to track and pay off the loans.

“That was so freeing,” she said.

The U.S. Department of Education offers a Direct Consolidation loan with no fee.

3. Plan ahead instead of trying to catch up.

Courtney said she kept herself within her budget by learning to plan ahead for major events, like birthdays and holidays and vacations, instead of putting those expenses on credit cards.

“Whereas I always wanted to treat the holidays as an emergency and put it on my credit card and just make it rain in various stores, all of a sudden it was like, ‘Oh, I should be putting away money every month to get there and then look at what I have at the end of the year and look at what I can afford to do for people,'” she said. “One of the years, during my debt payoff, I made all of my Christmas presents for my friends and family.”

“I still felt like I got to give gifts, but I did so within my means,” she said.

4. Focus on small benchmarks at first.

Courtney said she at first focused on paying off her credit card with the lowest balance as a way to feel like she was making progress.

“I continued to make minimum payments on my other [credit cards], but I really focused on that one because I wanted to feel accomplished,” she said. “And when I paid off that first credit card, I remember, it felt so good.”

“It started to feel like, oh, I can do this I can make headway,” Courtney recalled. “Just with every little benchmark, it felt so great and so exciting.”

Kanye West working on sequel to ’Donda’ album

January 4, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Less than six months after the release of Donda, Kanye West is apparently already hard at work on a sequel.

Steven Victor, the chief operating officer at G.O.O.D. Music and the SVP of A&R at Universal Music Group, told Complex, “Ye has started working on his new masterpiece, DONDA 2.”

If the project comes to fruition it would be the eleventh studio album from the Chicago native and the first sequel album in his discography.

Ye released DONDA in August 2021 after a host of setbacks and delays, with a deluxe version featuring five new songs released just three months later in November.

COVID live updates: US reports 1 million new daily COVID cases

January 4, 2022 by WDNY Radio

About 62% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Jan 04, 6:36 am
US reports 1 million new daily COVID cases

More than 1 million new COVID-19 cases were reported in the United States on Monday, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The US recorded 1,688 deaths related to COVID-19 on Monday, below the record high of 4,442, set on Jan. 20, 2021, according to the university’s data.

Jan 04, 6:32 am
US reports record 325,000 new pediatric COVID infections last week

Children accounted for about 17.4% of last week’s reported COVID-19 cases, down from previous weeks, when children accounted for more than a quarter of all new cases.

A total of nearly 7.9 million children have tested positive for the virus, since the onset of the pandemic.

ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos

Jan 03, 4:02 pm
New York looking into COVID-19 hospitalizations that began for other reasons

She continued, “And I’m anticipating to see that at least a certain percentage overall are not being treated for COVID.”

Hospitals will begin reporting their breakdowns Tuesday, but it’s unclear how soon the data will be publicly available.

-ABC News’ Joshua Hoyos and Will McDuffie

Jan 03, 3:11 pm
Surgeon general warns next few weeks ‘will be tough’

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy warned that COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations will continue to increase as the omicron variant rapidly spreads across the country.

Information from South Africa and the United Kingdom indicates omicron could be less severe than previous COVID-19 variants, Murthy said.

“We’re still going to see a lot of people get sick and a lot of hospitalizations, but the overall severity may end up being significantly lower,” he said.

Murthy said both South Africa and the U.K. “had a very rapid rise, but then they had a very steep fall” in cases

“I’m hoping that that’s what happens here too,” he added.

-ABC News’ Joanne Rosa

Biden administration reimposes ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy

January 4, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Biden administration officials further outlined a plan for the implementation of the “MPP” or “Remain in Mexico” policy on a conference call with reporters Monday while underscoring a commitment to ending the program and describing safeguards designed to improve conditions for asylum seeking enrollees.

A central criticism of the MPP program — which bars asylum seekers from entering the U.S. while immigration courts review their claims — was the lack of access to U.S. legal services for enrollees forced into makeshift Mexican border camps. Now, the Biden administration is working with legal service providers and promising 24-hour consultation windows to assist with screening interviews and immigration court cases.

The Justice Department’s Executive Office of Immigration Review is working to increase legal representation rates for asylum seekers while distributing “self-help materials” for immigrant applicants who need information on the process.

Improving conditions south of the border was another component in securing the Mexican government’s cooperation. U.S. humanitarian workers have built up WiFi access at shelters, and Mexican authorities have stepped up security including at transportation hubs.

Now, migrants enrolled in MPP will have access to transportation services at the port of entry, something Biden administration officials said is a necessary security measure given the level of crime taking place at border crossings.

Over the holidays, the Biden administration submitted a request to the Supreme Court for expedited briefings on the case to end MPP. The administration previously lost lower court appeals against efforts to reinstate the protocols.

Under the latest iteration of MPP, migrants who receive an interview with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will be judged on whether there’s a “reasonable possibility” they have a fear of returning to Mexico rather than the previously used and more restrictive “more likely than not” standard.

The new standards are accessible to those like the group of 36 migrants brought to El Paso Monday for court hearings, making them the first to be processed under the new rules.

Officials did not provide information on the number of asylum seekers subjected to MPP under the Biden administration’s latest implementation efforts, but they did confirm enrollments have started in the El Paso and San Diego regions.

One senior Biden administration official estimated on Monday that the program was costing the U.S. government in excess of “tens of millions of dollars.”

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