US reports global record of daily cases

The US saw a record-high increase in the number of daily COVID-19 cases as the heavily mutated omicron variant spread at a dizzying pace. President Biden called the current wave "a pandemic of the unvaccinated."

The United States reported more than 1 million new COVID-19 cases on Monday setting a global record, according to data from John Hopkins University.

The country saw a daily rise of 1,080,211 in infections after the long New Year's weekend.

While the number of infections tends to be higher on Mondays due to delays in weekend tallying, the latest figure is nearly double that of the previous Monday.

The previous daily high was registered at 590,576 on December 30.
Government modeling has found that the omicron variant — the most transmissible strain yet — accounts for about 59% of all active cases in the US in the week ending December 25.

During the current omicron-driven wave, the rolling average over seven days — which experts see as more reliable — was 486,000 cases per day as of Monday evening, the university said.