US reports nearly 1 m COVID-19 cases in a day, setting global record

REUTERS: The United States reported almost 1 million new coronavirus cases on Monday, according to a Reuters tally, a global record nearly double the country’s peak of 505,109 set just a week ago as the highly contagious ‘Omicron’ variant shows no sign of slowing.

The number of hospitalised COVID-19 patients has risen nearly 50% in the last week and now exceeds 100,000, a Reuters analysis showed, the first time that threshold has been reached since the winter surge a year ago. 

Overall, the United States has seen a daily average of 486,000 cases over the last week, a rate that has doubled in seven days and far outstrips that of any other country. The record of 978,856 new infections on Monday includes some cases from Saturday and Sunday, when many states do not report. The average number of deaths per day has remained fairly steady throughout December and into early January at about 1,300, according to a Reuters tally, though deaths typically lag behind cases and hospitalisations.

Omicron appears to be far more easily transmitted than previous iterations of the virus, though the World Health Organization said on Tuesday that evidence thus far suggests the variant is causing less severe illness.

Nevertheless, public health officials have warned that the sheer volume of Omicron cases threatens to overwhelm hospitals, some of which are already struggling to handle a wave of COVID-19 patients.