Viewers may have noticed The View was without one of its most important hosts when it returned from its holiday hiatus on Monday, as Whoopi Goldberg is out battling a mild case of COVID-19, per Deadline. 

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Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin, Sara Haines, and guest host Ana Navarro appeared remotely from their homes Monday in an apparent throwback to the COVID-19 shutdown format. 

Behar made the announcement that their co-host tested positive for the virus over the holiday break, adding she’s praying the remote format lasts just a week “but you never know because this omicron thing is all over the place.” 

“Whoopi, unfortunately, tested positive over the break,” said Behar, adding Goldberg will probably return next week. “Since she’s vaxxed and boosted, her symptoms have been very, very mild, but we’re being super cautious here at The View.” 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Goldberg has long campaigned for safe and preventative measures, even taking viewers along with her virtually as she received her second vaccination dose in early 2021. She encouraged others to “get the shot” after receiving her first dose, calling it the “most important step that everybody can do to end all that’s happening.”

As omicron’s infectiousness continues to permeate New York at a rapid rate, ABC 7 New York reported on Monday that more than 9,000 residents are hospitalized with COVID-19.  

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“These numbers are rather shocking, when you think about where we are, but we have to remind everyone, this is not the first strain of COVID-19. This is not the delta,” said Governor Kathy Hochul, per ABC 7.  

“People are testing positive at a much higher rate, but the severity of the illness is far less than we’ve seen before. Shocking in the scale and number of people testing positive, but also grateful, so grateful, we are not seeing, now it’s been with us for a solid month now, literally, a month later, we can say with certainty that the cases are not presenting themselves as severely as we could have or we had feared. That is the silver lining.”