WASHINGTON: The US set a global record of almost one million new coronavirus infections reported in a day, nearly double the country’s peak of 505,109 hit 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 per cent in the last week and now exceeds 1,000,000, the first time that threshold has been reached since the winter surge a year ago.
Overall, the US 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 978,856 new infections on Monday include some cases from Saturday and Sunday, when many states do not report.
The average number of US deaths per day has remained fairly steady throughout December and into early January at about 1,300, though deaths typically lag behind cases and hospitalisations.
Omicron appears to be far more easily transmitted than previous iterations of the virus. The variant was estimated to account for 95.4pc of the coronavirus cases identified in the US as of January 1, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday.
The World Health Organisation said yesterday that evidence thus far suggests Omicron 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, primarily among the unvaccinated.
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan declared a 30-day state of emergency yesterday and mobilised 1,000 National Guard members to pandemic response operations as Covid-19 hospitalisations in the state hit a record high of more than 3,000. That is an increase of more than 500pc in the last seven weeks, Hogan said.
Delaware, Illinois, Ohio and Washington, D.C., also have reported record numbers of hospitalised Covid patients in recent days.
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