Shattering global records in terms of daily cases, the United States recorded over one million COVID cases on Monday, as per data provided by the John Hopkins University.
The U.S. recorded 1,080,211 fresh cases in the country on January 3, with the weekly numbers catalogued up until the same date being a record high of 3.4 million cases and the daily average being 486000 per day. The previous highest daily average recorded for a week was 258000 cases per day in January last year.
However, given the high vaccination rates prevalent across the country compared to last year, the recent recorded deaths and hospitalisations have been relatively lower than during previous waves as the country’s death toll fell 10 percent week-on-week on January 3. Government officials have been reluctant to enforce new restrictions on public movement and businesses as they try to combat the new wave as well as ensuring there are no economic disruptions.
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Meanwhile, the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) has reported that the Omicron variant has become the dominating strain, as it was over 95 percent of all the strains circulating in the country and has been the cause of 77 percent of all cases recorded for the week which ended on Christmas day. The much lethal Delta variant caused 4.6 percent cases for the same aforementioned week.
Britain, France and India have also recorded a high number of daily cases. The U.K. reported 218724 cases on Monday, its highest daily cases even as PM Boris Johnson has made it clear that the country plans to ride the wave with no restrictions on public movement on the anvil. Italy also reported a record 170844 cases.
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Meanwhile, a new COVID variant, IHU has been discovered in France even as the country contributed most to the number of COVID cases in the entire Europe with the country reporting over 200000 cases for the fourth straight day on January 1. India on Tuesday recorded 58000 cases, 56 percent from the previous day's tally even as the government opened up vaccination for teens aged 15-18 from January 3. Meanwhile, Yuzhou (1.1 million population) became the second city after Xi’an in China to be locked down in accordance with the country's strict zero-COVID policy as it prepares to host the Winter Olympics.
