employee who wore the costume has become a scapegoat and question whether kaiser could have done more to keep them safe. they say before the outbreak, they were not tested regularly. >> i feel that this could have been either prevented or really minimized had testing been done prior. >> reporter: kaiser says prior to the outbreak it followed the santa clara county order and in a statement added, even though the order states that health care providers can ask workers to wait until 14 days between tests, we are offering our health care workers to be tested weekly if they wish. kaiser nurses say the hospital did not make it easy for them to get tested. since october, santa clara valley medical center and saint louis have tested employees working directly with patients every two weeks.

it's required. this woman works with enterprise employee health at all three hospitals. she says being proactive and consistent with testing has paid off. >> we have a low rate of po positivity of testing of employees. >> nbc bay area news. another developing story this evening, the two senate races in georgia. right now nbc says it's too close to call. the polls closed about an hour ago. if the democrats win both races, they will secure control of the senate. what you're looking at now is a live look at the stage for the republican rally there in georgia tonight. the event has not yet started. people are just starting to gather. remember it's about 8:00 in georgia right now. the democrats will be holding their rally virtually. the state is holding the special elections this evening because georgia requires the senator to win at least 50% of the vote to be declared a winner. back in november, none of the candidates received more than 50%. here's his running.

jon ossoff is trying to unseat republican david perdue. in the second race, democrat rafa raphael warnock is trying to unseat kelly loeffler. here's why this matters. what happens in georgia will impact the entire country. if the democrats win both races, the senate chamber would be split 50/50. vice president-elect kamala harris would then be the tiebreaking vote, tipping the pow tore the dems. on the flip side, republicans need to win only one of these georgia races tonight to keep control of the senate. ultimately joe biden's presidency takes shape with the results of this election. nbc's jay gray has the latest from atlanta. >> reporter: the political universe revolving around georgia right now, lines stretching in polling places around the state. >> out of all the places that everything would come back here. to be like this is the deciding moment. >> reporter: an unprecedented moment, two senate seats on the

ballot here and in turn control of the upper chamber and perhaps president-elect joe biden's agenda along with his cabinet and judiciary nominations. >> one state. one state can chart the course not just for the next four years but for the next generation. >> democrats jon ossoff and reverend raphael warnock looking to unseat republican incumbents david perdue and kelly loeffler. if both democrats win there will be a 50/50 split in the senate giving vice president-elect kamala harris the tiebreaking boat. if one of the republicans are reelected, the gop remains a slim majority. >> the whole world is watching the people of georgia. >> reporter: the runoff framed by then going and unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud who over the weekend spent more than an hour lobbying to overturn his loss in georgia. the. >> there's nothing wrong with

saying that you recalculated. >> election officials refuting the president's accusations while during the runoff trying to reassure georgia voters and the nation about the process. jay gray, nbc news, atlanta. >> a lot on the line. here's another live look at that republican event in georgia. right now too close to call. it's likely we won't get the final results tonight. it might be a day or two. we're going to bring you updates when we learn them both on air and online at nbcbayarea.com. now back to the fight against covid-19. today the state reported more than 31,000 new cases. our positivity rate now at 12.7%. that is the highest it's been since the pandemic began. now, as cases climb, so do hospitalizations. tonight the bay area as a whole has 5.9% of standard icu beds available. that's down 2% from yesterday. here's a look at where things

stand county by county. five counties are in the red zone with less than 15% availability. san mateo, santa clara, contra costa and marin. and take a look aetna pa county. it's at 0%. that means the standard icu beds are full so new patients maw have to go to surge facilities. get comfortable staying at home. san francisco mayor london breed says the stay-at-home order is here for the near future for the entire bay area because the region is under the state stay-at-home order. and local leaders are not able to lift any restrictions yet. the mayor says they won't know the full effect of the holiday season for another couple of weeks. >> i know this continues to be so hard for everyone, especially our small businesses that remain closed or very limited in the services they can provide. we're doing everything we can to help. >> but the mayor did share positive news. the city started vaccinating

people who live at laguna honda hospital. there's about seven people who live there. you can see pictures getting vaccinated. other 1,000 staff members have already been vaccinated. the second round of vaccine shots are being given at a north bay hospital. the marin health medical center started giving the second shots today. roughly 1,800 people have been vaccinated at the hospital so far. the hospital is administering the pfizer vaccine. >> plenty of doses are still in the freezer but how many shots have been given here in the bay area? here's the chart. santa clara county, the most populous in the bay area, has administered more than 90,000 shots. alameda county checks in at number two on the list with more than 40,000. contra costa, san mateo between 20 and 40,000 shots. sonoma, solano, marin and napa counties have administered less than 20,000 shots.

these numbers were compiled by the mercury news. as awe point of reference, governor newsom says statewide we have only administered about one-third of the doses we have available. if you're wondering where you are in the vaccine line, we can help. pretty good feature here. just point your phone camera to the qr code. you see it in the bottom left corner of the screen. that's a qr code. take your phone camera. point it right there. it's going to take you to the page that our web team has been working on. they've created an interactive tool. you answer a few questions about what county you live and what you do for a living, what your job is. within a minute you're going to get a rough estimate of your place in line. just point your phone camera to the qr code. another holiday gathering is truggering covid concerns. one employee has tested positive. nbc bay area's joed hernandez

reports the company acknowledges it never should have happened. >> reporter: a spokesperson says an employee at this store did attend a company christmas eve buffet. she says the store is taking steps to make sure it doesn't happen again. >> we take full responsibility for the actions of our local team in venetia that didn't follow protocol. >> reporter: they admit mistakes were made when the store hosted a holiday meal for employees. these photos who says the pictures were posted on the store's facebook page shows people not wearing masks, or even when they were, not social distancing. ray lee's says a few days later a team member at the party tested positive for covid-19. >> the manager who went out sick right after the party, there were a number of people who were photographed sitting close to them. and those people are still working. >> the mayor of venetia shared

his concerns on social media today with covid cases surging throughout the county and the state, customers too say they're troubled. of. >> i think everybody should follow the rules. it protects us all if they do. >> we've got masks to offer people. >> they insist they have learned from their mistakes. they say rigorous safety measures are in place. they even have a cleaning marshall on duty constantly wiping down surfaces. while the store won't prohibit non-maskers from entering, they encourage customers to wear them. >> we are committed to safety and high levels of sanitation at our location and believe that this is an isolated incident. >> they've been transparent about its covid cases, posting each one to its website. they say there have been six cases since march at the venetia store but no outbreaks. they hope customers stick with them. in venetia, jodi hernandez, nbc

bay area news. tonight president trump is tweeting an invitation to show up at the capitol tomorrow morning for a rally. this comes as congress is set to certify the electoral college results. pro-trump demonstrators even tonight are rallying as the president continues to put pressure on vice president pence, who's set to preside over tomorrow's certification process. president trump claims the vice president can reject fraudulently chosen electors. constitutional experts say that's simply not true. mr. pence seemed to signal a fight. >> i want to assure you i share the concerns of millions of americans about voting irregularities. i promise you come this wednesday we'll have our day in congress. >> at least 13 republican senators and more than 100 house republicans plan to reject joe biden's win. that will slow down the process tomorrow but almost certainly

will not change the results because enough republicans have said they will vote to certify joe biden's victory. still to come, a vaccine success story, how a northern california hospital was able to successfully give out hundreds of vaccines in less than three hours after their freezer failed. also how's this? barack obama boulevard, one bay area city just renamed some of its local streets to honor the former president. i'm chief meteorologist jeff raniere tracking the return of rain tomorrow. i'll give you all the details and a second chance on friday. coming up in eight minutes. when we welcome our west coast viewers, we'll look at life after getting covid shots. how soon does normalcy follow? also the distraction some folks could use, two huge lottery jackpots up for grabs. how covid may be changing fantasies of hitting it big. by harnessing california's

abundant wind and solar energy, we have the power to take on climate change. use less from 4 to 9 pm to keep california golden. the man accused of killing two women in a cross walk in a new year's eve hit and run tas approximated a judge in san francisco today. sitting social distancinged from his attorney, he pleadeding in to an array of charges. thom jensen has the details. >> reporter: troy mcallister's public defender entered the not guilty plea on his behalf. he's accused of speeding through a red light on new year's eve hitting and killing two women in the cross walk. his brother told the reporter in japan his family has no ill

feelings toward mcallister. mcallister was on parole at the time and now faces two counts of vehicular manslaughter along with other charges. criticism that mcallister should have been in prison new year's eve locked up for life under california's three strike law. >> i suggest that there is enough blame and questions of accountability for many parts of the criminal justice system. >> reporter: grant says mcallister was denied access to drug and alcohol treatment after he was jailed for a robbery in 2018 and sat in a cell for months awaiting trial. meanwhile a former coworker of the second victim shared this picture of liz platt. he worked with her at the radio station where she worked as a volunteer for the past several years. >> he says the radio station will hold a tribute to platt on

sunday evening noon to 3:00. mcallister will be back in court for another hearing in two weeks. he's being held in jail with no bail set. thom jensen, nbc bay area news. a potential vaccine disaster averted thanks to some quick thinking and quick work. a hospital in ukiah found out yesterday that its refrigerator holding 850 moderna vaccines failed. the fridge broke. that left two and a half hours for the shots to be given or the shots would be ruined, 850 of them. officials at aventis health medical center came up with a plan to give the vaccines to a nursing home, county workers, jail inmates and the general public. 40 nurses and doctors jumped into action to give the shots. couple of hours later, all the vaccines were administered. a new requirement now for people booking rentals through air beenb. you've got to fill out a new form before booking in

california. you have to attest your stay is permitted within local guidelines. the move follows a five-day shutdown of new reservations in the lake tahoe area last week, raising concerns about tourists booking short term rentals. the goal is to help inform guests and hosts on pandemic-related restrictions. changing the math in san jose, city council members voted this afternoon to rename a downtown corridor barack obama boulevard. the plan has been in the works for three years to honor the legacy of the 44th president. the structure has three street names, about half a mile long. it's bird avenue from interstate 280, which changes to south montgomery and becomes autumn street. take a look. dark skies and big waves. high surf advisory out today. a few people we saw walking along the sand keeping their distance from the water.

this is in ocean beach in san francisco. we've been talking about it. jeff has been telling us about the sneaker waves and the big waves not just for today but the last several days. jeff raniere is with us today to talk about the big waves and maybe rain ahead. jeff. >> it looks really good, raj, to get some rainfall here as we roll through tomorrow's forecast. now e we've seen the southerly moisture cap really weakening. that's why totals are down with eme storm systs. at least we can get something in here with how slow the rain season has start. to bring you outside to the live high definition sky camera network, you'll see we have mostly clear skies in san francisco, a lot of blue skies today. albeit temperatures were cool in the 50s. weather headlines tomorrow morning, a little bit of patchy fog with a storm system off to the forth had. as we roll through tomorrow we'll have a chance of afternoon rain and ahead i see a second

consistent chance of rainfall as we roll into friday. storm ranger will continue to show dry conditions at this hour, but again things picking up tomorrow. in the morning it's just patchy areas of fog for us, better bet of the thick fog right there over the central valley. if you're traveling on interstate 5 or 99. as we roll through tomorrow afternoon you can see the storm front approaching from the north. definitely looks impressive. we will have heavier pockets in the north bay indicated by the yellow and orange. you have the better bet of getting the totals around a quarter, maybe even isolated half inch amounts. but unfortunately as this moves to the south with a weaker souther southerly tap of moisture, this falls apart. we'll hold on to showers in the east bay and peninsula at 3:30 in the afternoon but for the south bay little to nothing left at 6:00 at night. and that will gradually continue to push out as we head through tomorrow evening. temperatures as we start off tomorrow not quite as cold as

this morning as the clouds move in and acts like a bank et. this will put us back into the 40s, tri-valley, 41. beginning with the east bay, 43 san francisco and north bay at 41. daytime highs will stay on the cool side here. not too much of a warm up. 53 in santa rosa. that's some of my chilliest weather. concord 55. 59 in san jose. as you can go to the south there's less of a chance of rain, temperatures slightly warmer tomorrow. now, we do get that chance of rain as we roll through our forecast into wednesday. there will be another chance after that. i think the next best possibility of consistent rain, also snow for the sierra gets there as we head into friday. notice as i mentioned it had looked like we would get the strong southerly tap of moisture. but it's just not developing. so, we'll get the rainfall but it's not going to be the storm systems we need to solve our problems. so, wednesday into friday we do about a quarter to half inch

here for the north bay. san francisco to the south. trace amounts to about a quarter of an inch. on my extended forecast in san francisco, we'll dry it out this weekend, temps in the upper 50s to about 60 degrees. and across the inland valleys drying out this weekend. this this point we will flip back to dryer weather for the early part of next week. few rain chances coming our way. if anything raj and janelle, it's good for the garden, good for the grass to turn those timers back a little bit and maybe save dollars on that with some of this rain coming in. >> i like your thinking, jeff. >> good idea. thanks jeff. coming up, nearly $1 billion up for grabs. both megamillions and powerball over 400 million and people are getting lotto fever.

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rt will. a little spooky, little ghostly, little odd. but actually it's all good. take a look. in the morning fog, a container ship loaded with the record setting cargo. the three giant cranes were making the final leg of their journey from china to oakland where they'll be the tallest at the port. the cranes are needed to off load cargo from ships. looks pretty cool. since these are the only cranes of this side on the west coast, it'll give the port a big advantage over others. all is forgiven tonight if you owe money on overdue library books. the santa clara county library district has wiped the slate clean. administrators say in tough times libraries are vital, so

erasing fines is a way to help people keep using them. card holders with ereaders can download books for free. however if the book is overdue by several months, the item will be considered lost and charge the borrower the cost of that item. are you feeling lucky? >> i am now. >> $400 million is up for grabs. >> nobody won is last jackpot. so the megamillion drawing is 447 million bucks. the powerball is 410 million. the odds of choosing all six numbers correctly about 1 in 300 million. i feel like those are good odds. >> those are good odds. >> there's a chance. >> this is our year. an official day off to vote. it could happen. that story's next.

tonight at 6:00, they could really speed up the vaccination process. stanford researchers working on a one-dose solution to the coronavirus. that story and more tonight at 6:00. and next on "nightly news," vaccination frustration. we're hearing it across the country and especially here in california. what the surgeon general is asking states to do to speed up

the process to get more shots in people's arms. lester holt joins us in about a minute. returning to our top story. let's talk a live look at the republican watch party in atlanta. this is a live look at the podium. that is the governor of georgia, governor brian kemp addressing the people there, waiting for the results. control of the senate is up for grabs tonight. as we mentioned two senate runoffs. if the two democrats win, the democrats will control the u.s. senate. we're going to have much more coverage ahead on "nightly news" and our local news cast at 6:00. lawmakers announced today they're pushing for it. an reintroduced the election day holiday act. maintains that people should not be forced to choose between their job or family in order to exercise their right to vote. >> yep, so the election was a couple of months ago, but it's again a big night of politics around the country, specifically though in georgia.

we'll be tracking that story at 6:00. thanks for joining us at 5:00. >> hope to see you soon. tonight, no charges for the police officer who shot jacob blake in the back. the d.a. announcing the white officer who shot blake, a black man, seven times at close range and paralyzed him will face no criminal counts a state of emergency declared in kenosha ahead of potential over the summer.lence the high-stakes election in georgia to decide who controls the u.s. senate. the democrats must win both races to swing the balance of power the republicans hoping to hold the line when will we know the winners? president trump turning up pressure on vice president mike pence to overturn joe biden's victory.