(Washington) The United States, facing a worrying fifth wave of COVID-19 fueled by the Omicron variant, recorded a world record of more than one million cases on Monday, according to the report from Johns Hopkins University.
The country recorded a peak with 1,080,211 new cases on the day of January 3.
The Dr Anthony Fauci, senior White House adviser on the health crisis, said on Sunday that the rise in the number of COVID-19 cases in the United States was following an “almost vertical” curve.
Omicron is now the dominant variant in the United States and accounted for about 59% of new cases in the week ending December 25, according to the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC).
Anthony Fauci said he hoped the current wave would peak “after a few weeks” before reversing, as happened in South Africa.
Death and hospitalization rates in the United States have been much lower in recent weeks than in previous COVID-19 outbreaks.
The number of recorded deaths fell 10% week on week with 9,382 dead in the past seven days.
The country has recorded 3.4 million cases in the past seven days, an average of 486,000 a day with a peak on Jan. 3, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The record recorded by the United States in previous waves was 258,000 daily cases, in the week between January 5 and 11, 2021.