(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 reported on Monday after the New Years’ long weekend, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The number of cases reported over 24 hours was established Monday evening at 8:30 p.m. at 1,080,211. However, it should be taken with caution because the number of cases recorded on Monday is generally very high, especially after a weekend of three. days as was the case for New Years in the United States.
However, this is more than double the number of cases recorded last Monday, after the three-day Christmas weekend, when more than 489,000 infections had been recorded by the university.
The seven-day average of cases, deemed more significant by experts, stood on Monday evening at nearly 486,000 daily cases.
The Dr Anthony Fauci, the White House’s senior 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 Dec. 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.
Deaths and hospitalizations in the United States have also increased recently, but to a much lesser extent. But they could still climb, given that they usually reach their peaks after that of the contaminations curve.
Nearly 206 million Americans, or 62% of the population, are fully immunized against COVID-19 according to the CDC, and 69 million have also received a booster dose.
The previous record average recorded by the United States in previous waves was 258,000 daily cases during the week of January 5 to 11, 2021.