overcrowding on those days leading up to the holiday. nbc bay area's melissa colorado has more on what you need to know before you head to the store. >> i'm just noticing the stores are filling up more and more as we get closer to thanksgiving. >> reporter: even though heather santos of martinez isn't planning on hosting a big gathering this year, this mother of four isn't skimping on thanksgiving with all the typical fixings. the nagging question in the back of her mind, who gets an invite? >> i'm hoping that my mom can maybe stop by for a brief time just to say hello, maybe with the garage door open. >> reporter: at the grocery outlet in pleasant hill, the owner gives daily updates on facebook, telling customers what's in stock and what's running low. >> tomorrow i have more turkeys coming. >> reporter: with more families hosting smaller gatherings next week, more customers are eyeing smaller alternatives to the

typical turkey. >> they're bringing in a bunch of the smaller breasts, right? which are fantastic. that's what my wife and enjoy getting from time to time. >> reporter: to limit overcrowding next week and relieve panic buying, the ceo of california grocers association is urging shoppers buy your non-perishable items asap. >> your gravy, stuffing, baking goods, get all that stuff this week so you can avoid the tuesday and wednesday before thanksgiving. >> i got a few pies, and i got my little herb seasoning pacts. >> plan your trips accordingly. social distance. be smart. be aware. be courteous and kind to other people. >> that was melissa colorado reporting for us. not just grocery stores being packed, sadly more people are showing up at food banks as well. our damon trujillo tweeted this video this afternoon. this is from team ministries in san jose. that line is stretching for blocks. coming up in ten minutes, we'll

show you how you can help people in need this holiday season. the dangerous covid surge continues across california. tonight the state has more than 1 million cases. nearly 10,000 new covid cases were added statewide just yesterday. you see the number there. the last time we saw these kind of numbers was back in august. now, the positivity rate is also rising. the seven-day average is 5.3%. the world health organization says anything over 5% is worrisome and should prompt business closures, which is what we're seeing across the region. let's take a closer look now in the bay area. this is alameda county. in july, hospitals were at their peak with 213 patients. in august, we went to 207. then we started going down. that's good news. but now we're starting to tick back up. over the last couple of weeks, hospital numbers are slowly beginning to go back up. right now 89 in alameda county. the county says that 42% of their hospital beds are still available. governor newsom says he expects to see these numbers not just in

alameda county but across the state, the hospitalizations to go up again. it tends to be two to three weeks behind a spike in cases. getting a covid test is about to get easier. the fda has approved an at-home testing kit that will give you results in less than 30 minutes. the kit was created right here in the bay area. janelle wang joins us now again to talk about it. i guess the big question is how long before we're actually able to access this? >> oh, we're going to have availability to it by the end of the year. this kit is developed by lieu sarah health based out of emeryville. you swab yourself at home and it promises results within 30 minutes and as fast as 11 minutes. and you don't have to send anything to a lab. the $50 test kit was developed in conjunction with sutter health. clinical trials showed patients had no problems performing the test on themselves. the kit is authorized for patients 14 or older at home, but doctors will also be able to

use the kits on patients of any age to get faster results. >> and they're not just clamoring for more tests. they're clamoring for better tests, tests that are accurate, lab quality, and being able to get results very rapidly. >> personally i wouldn't trust it. >> simply because? >> simply because it's not a professional administering it, and i would want a doctor. >> but as you heard, not everyone is ready to trust an at-home test. but if you do want to try it, you need a prescription. right now the kits will roll out to sutter health patients in northern california first by the end of this year, and then they'll be available across the country in spring of 2021. we also have some good news on the vaccine front. pfizer is ready to apply for fda approval within days. it released its final analysis from its phase three trials today and the vaccine's efficacy rate actually improved from 90% to 95%. pfizer could get emergency use authorization from the fda this month, and that means health care workers could be vaccinated

by the end of the year. then to people most at risk, including the elderly and the general public probably about six months away in the spring. on monday, as you know, moderna released its preliminary results from its phase three trials, and it also showed an efficacy rate of 95%. so two promising vaccines, and we could get fda approval by the end of the year. so very hopeful on the vaccine front. raj and jis essica. >> thank you. we want to follow up on that story we brought you last night, the confrontation in discovery bay. today an outpouring of support for that family. >> you're a black person in a white neighborhood, and you're acting like one. why don't you act like a white person in a white neighborhood? >> this is the video a lot of people were talking about. it was first posted on social media by the family. they say all of this unfolded after that older white woman there, that neighbor came knocking at their door to complain about their dog.

nbc bay area's jodi hernandez has the new developments. >> reporter: the incident that took place out in this gated discovery bay neighborhood has literally captured the attention of folks all across the country. tonight the local chapter of the naacp is speaking out along with a lot of neighbors. >> i'm definitely thankful for all of our neighbors who took time to come over here and express, you know, how they feel. >> reporter: you're looking at just a handful of the expressions of support a discovery bay family has gotten after another neighbor's actions. >> you're a black person in a while neighborhood, and you're acting like one. why don't you act like a white person in a white neighborhood? >> reporter: these racial comments came from a neighborhood who came to the jones' front door to complain about their dog earlier this week. now they've sparked a growing uproar. >> they're just so friendly and they're so helpful, and i'm very sad about that because they -- they don't deserve those words.

they're good people. >> you will be supported, that you are supported, that we are here for you. >> reporter: tonight the east contra costa county chapter of the naacp is condemning the act. they plan to follow up with the sheriff's department and the homeowners' association. >> it's disheartening to think that people still see us, african-americ african-americans, black people as second class citizens. >> reporter: we reached out again to the woman who made the comments and the husband. but they did not answer our knocks at the door or phone calls. a neighbor says the woman has always seemed nice. >> but i am surprised. i am very surprised. i would never believe it if i didn't see it. >> reporter: the jones say there's no excuse for the woman's actions and are hopeful by sharing their story, things will change. >> it's to open eyes so that people can see what being black in america looks like. >> what she said, you know, it's all too familiar. i've dealt with it.

i've seen my father deal with it, my mother deal with it, uncles, family members. my thing is what are we going to do to fix it? >> reporter: in contra costa county, jodi hernandez, nbc bay area news. san jose's bishop is responding now to the news that he's the subject of a vatican investigation. the catholic news agency reports that bishop oscar cantu and his handling of the allegations of clerical misconduct in his former diocese is under scrutiny. before moving to san jose last year, bishop cantu led the die cease in las cruces, mexico, which later released records on 28 priests accused of sexual abuse. in a statement, the bishop says, i support the protocols to ensure the accountability of bishops and bring justice and healing to the victims and survivors, and i intend to cooperate fully. getting to work. president-elect joe biden spent the day meeting virtually with frontline health workers. this comes as the u.s. crosses a tragic threshold. more than 250,000 american lives

have been lost to covid-19. the president-elect pleading with americans to take the virus seriously ahead of the holidays. he also criticized president trump for continuing to block biden's access to information. >> this is like going to war. you need a commander in chief. unless it's made available soon, we're going to be behind by weeks or months. >> talks over coronavirus stimulus package remain deadlocked. house democrats want to start negotiations at $2 trillion. senate republicans are pushing for a half trillion dollar price tag. nancy pelosi was nominated for another term as speaker today. democrats voted to keep pelosi at the top of the party. to secure the gavel, pelosi will still need to win a vote with the majority of the house in january. pelosi signaled today that this could be her last term as speaker. two years ago, pelosi made a deal with revoting democrats to only serve four more years. today nancy pelosi said she plans to abide by that agreement. another reminder that 2020

is a year to forget. tonight the warriors are dealing with a potentially devastating injury. within the past hour, the team confirmed that klay thompson injured his leg. thompson was working out in southern california today when he injured his lower right leg. that's all we know right now. he'll undergo tests within the next couple of days, and that's when we'll know the extent of this injury. thompson, as you might recall, missed all of last season with a torn acl on his left knee. he spent more than a year rehabbing that injury to be ready for this upcoming season, but as of right now, we don't know if he's going to be back. by the way, the nba draft is happening as we speak. the warriors are minutes away from making their first round draft pick. well, ahead, the signs are coming down. cal renaming two of its campus buildings. the controversial paths of the people they're named for that led to that change. also a decades long holiday tradition returns to the south bay, but it's going to look a

lot different. we're going to give you a sneak peek of christmas in the park. i'm chief meteorologist jeff ranieri. i'll show you how much rain, how much snow, and what you can expect for thanksgiving. a lot of you are preparing. i'll give you an early look coming up in about eight minutes. when we welcome our west coast viewers as we mark 250,000 deaths from the pandemic, we'll tell you about the grim assessment from the white house coronavirus task force. why they're calling current mitigation efforts inadequate. also the 737 max cleared to fly, but the questions that lay ahead on "nightly news."

46 guilty verdicts.

a sacramento jury deliberated less than three hours before convicting a benicia man of being the norcal rapist. he showed no emotion, just looking down at the table. the counts are from attacks on nine women in six cities over 15 years. jurors say dna evidence and waller's own inadequate testimony made their decision easier. today waller was masked, but his victims banded together in court to look him in the eye. >> it felt so good and looked like maybe he was crying last night. i shouldn't say this, but i don't know. his eyes were red, and it just felt great. >> not quite finished. we have a little bit more to go. but, yes, huge day. huge day. >> sentencing is set for next month, and waller could face life in prison. while the cal campus is relatively nowadays, workers were busy there today stripping the names off of some buildings. the public raised concerns a few years ago about lecomtety hall and barrows hall because their namesakes had controversial

histories. following a form review, the university elected to change the names of these buildings. john and joseph le conte came to berkeley from southern slave-owning families and promoted racist ideas. meanwhile david prescott barrows served as the uc president in the early 1,900s. the university says he wrote that, quote, the white race is above all others. >> what's happening today is very important for the university and very important for our campus community, particularly for members of our community who are from the black communities and from communities of color. while names may only be symbolic, those symbols have importance and weight. >> those buildings have not been renamed, at least not yet. for now they're going to go with the physics building and the social sciences building. we all know this is going to be just a strange thanksgiving for all of us, but it's going to be especially difficult for many families in the bay area. so nbc bay area along with telemundo are teaming up with safeway to try and help.

this year more and more people are relying on food banks to feed their families. joining me now is susan baitson with the alameda county food bank. good to see you. we've been doing this team-up with safeway and with you guys for years. in fact, we've been doing this for over 12 years. every year we say the need is great, but this year, susan, really tops anything we've seen before. >> absolutely. this year we're going to serve 1.5 million children, adults, and seniors in the bay area. we're so fortunate to have everyone trying to help us and safeway and nbc are wonderful leaders in this effort. we're thrilled. >> so tell me a little bit about in years past, we've been giving people -- we fill up these bags and people can get them there. is the supply there? people worry that there's just not enough food, that we're not going to be able to feed everyone because people are afraid that with covid, you don't have the access. but that's not the case, or is

it? >> oh, my gosh. our member agencies are working so hard night and day to make thanksgiving and the december holidays great for everyone in the bay area communities. so we are working night and day to make sure everyone will be served. >> yeah, and your need right now is greater than it has been in terms of the people that are showing up. so if i'm at home and i'm going to get to celebrate with my small family this year, what is the best way that my family can help reach out to other families so that they can have the same kind of meal that i get to have with my kids? >> well, we want you to support bay area food banks, and if you give to alameda county community food bank, we can take $1, and that will help us provide $7 worth of food. so every cent helps this holiday season, and there are more children, more adults, and more seniors that are depending on us. so we hope everybody will want to help.

>> thank you so much for all your efforts, and it is sad to think that people wouldn't have enough to eat during these very difficult times. it just seems almost impossible, but thank you. we know it's a very real reality. so here's another way that you can help us. the next time you're at a safeway, make a $10 donation. that money will go to local food banks. our annual nourishing neighbors food drive runs all the way through late december, so you have lots of opportunities to not only help once, maybe even twice. a welcome sight in the sierra. take a look. snow. a lot of snow. 16 inches falling overnight. this is at squaw valley, alpine meadows. squaw opens one week from today. north star opens this friday. so we are ready to have some fun skiing or snowboarding. we still have to do our nbc ski trip. we've been talking about this for ten years. >> for ten years. >> okay. three different cars.

let's do it. we can do it. you guys, it's been so nice to get that rain and that snow in here. i know like a lot of folks, it kind of was a good reset for us with everything else that's been going on to just kind of clean things off, all the ash that was still on some of the plants in my yard, maybe in yours too. really good to get things clean. so as we start off the microclimate forecast, a look at those 48-hour rainfall totals. we did the best as expected in the north bay. 0.72 of an inch in santa rosa. east san jose did get up to about a quarter of an inch, and that certainly was great there. now, overall we did have some thunderstorms developing. they stayed primarily to the north and the east of us, and the bulk of the activity is moving out. mountain rainfall totals anywhere from 1 1/2 to 3 inches, so also did good on that front.

we'll take you to the sierra. still have some lingering snow showers right now, but that snow warning expires at 6:00. if you're headed there this evening, still watch out for those slick roadways. our mountain snow averaged 8 to 16 inches. a look at storm ranger and mobile doppler radar, and things are clearing out right now. as we head through tomorrow morning, i think we'll be dry to start. but there is the possibility of some of this thick central valley tule fog forming. we may get some of that creeping in towards contra costa, alameda counties, and then a little bit of fog over towards san francisco. so through the day tomorrow, we'll also see some high clouds beginning to return for the afternoon. so not the sunniest of days, but i do expect it to be dry. as we start off tomorrow morning, it's also going to get colder. find that slightly heavier jacket. down to 42 in the south bay. tri-valley at 40. also dropping it to 43 in the east bay. san francisco 44. the north bay, the coldest with

my average at 39 degrees. daytime highs tomorrow don't really warm up a whole lot. we're kind of stuck in this pattern of upper 50s and low 60s. it will put us at 60 in san jose. and it's really going to look the same as you head throughout the bay area. 62 here in concord. more of those 50s and 60s for the peninsula. 62 in palo alto. san francisco, i have you at 57 in the marina. and for the north bay, 63 in napa. 61 novato. my extended forecast, dry weather as we head right through this weekend. and right now even into thanksgiving, itting loos like it will stay dprie. you'll see for the inland valleys, no big temperature extremes. i think the biggest thing are those morning lows. as we head through those next several mornings, 60s for daytime highs. dry for thanksgiving. let me show you real fast where the rain's going to be. at this point it looks like that rainfall would stay to the north of us. we'll keep an eye on it, but right now if you're inviting folks over for thanksgiving and

you're doing the thanksgiving outside, i think we'll have dry weather the way things look right now. >> that's good. that's what we need. >> great news. thank you, jeff. up next here at 5:00, a covid-approved way to celebrate the holidays. we're going to have an exclusive look at san jose's famed christmas in the park. a lot of changes. as we mark 250,000 deaths from the pandemic, we'll tell you about the grim assessment from the white house coronavirus task force. why they're calling current mitigation efforts inadequate. also the 737 max cleared to fly, but the questions that remain on "nightly news."

after more than four decades, san jose's most popular holiday tradition is undergoing a big-time change because of course covid. >> yes. everything's undergoing a change. but christmas in the park is transforming itself into a drive-through and then moving to a new location as well. nbc bay area's marianne favro has the exclusive look for us. >> reporter: one thing you'll

notice is a lot of lights. 160,000 new ones to be exact. i'm here in the middle of the pixel forest. this is one of the stars of the new christmas in the park's drive-through experience. despite covid concerns, after 40 years in downtown san jose, christmas in the park is still on track, just re-imagined as a drive-through experience at history park. >> people are going to need something to go to, something to get out of the house, something to enjoy, remember the holidays. sure, it's not the traditional christmas in the park. we know that. but we still have hundreds of decorated trees. we still have all of our animated displays. >> reporter: an added bonus, the exhibits will be choreographed to music you play on your car radio. >> we have characters in the lower parking lot that have singing faces. so they'll actually be singing the songs you're hearing in your car. >> reporter: add in 160,000 new lights in 18 million colors, and

you've got christmas in the park's biggest expansion since 1980. there are some other changes. because it cost about $1 million to put on and with no vendors to help fund the event, you will have to pay $10 or $20 a car to drive through depending on what time you go. you also have to sign up in advance online at christmasinthepark.com. in san jose, marianne favro, nbc bay area news. >> that actually looks pretty cool. that could be one of the things that remains with us. >> a nice little family get-together, one family, one car. >> we're back in a moment. stay with us. give you my world ♪ ♪ how can i, when you won't take it from me ♪

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tonight at 6:00, some high-flying help coming at just the right time. we're going to show you the new helicopter ready for takeoff in the south bay. we'll have that story for you coming up right here at 6:00. finally at 5:00, san jose's mayor, sam liccardo, is trying to set a good example for the community and for all of us. >> bring in the needle, jessica. he got his flu shot today. a drive-through flu shot for free. in fact, mark your calendar. every saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the santa clara county fairgrounds, you can do drive-through free flu shots. no appointment needs. health leaders say as you've

probably heard many times now, it's especially important to get your flu shot this year. >> yeah. you want to be able to make sure you know what you may be getting. that's going to do it for us. we'll be back at 6:00. "nightly news" with lester holt is next. tonight the grim milestone in the coronavirus crisis but new hope for a vaccine. the staggering toll the u.s. topping 250,000 deaths hospitalizations at record levels. our team in the red zone where the white house warns the spread is unyielding and exponential. it comes as pfizer announces its final vaccine results are even better than expected 95% effective. the company applying for fda authorization within days. plus, the first at-home test approved. is it a game changer the major setback for the nation's largest school district why new york city is shutting down in-person learning again.