JUST IN: US Hits Record Daily Covid Cases Since Pandemic Began

As the Omicron variant spreads throughout the country, the number of daily cases has reached a new high since the coronavirus pandemic started in March of 2020.

CNN reports:

The US hit a seven-day average of 265,427 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, blowing past the country’s previous record of about 252,000 daily cases, reported nearly a year ago on January 11.

The new peak, according to Johns Hopkins University data, comes amid a rapid acceleration of infections in the United States — and across the world — since last month.

And experts predict the Omicron variant — the most contagious strain of coronavirus yet — is going to make the start of 2022 very difficult.

“January is going to be a really, really hard month. And people should just brace themselves for a month where lots of people are going to get infected,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health.

According to the New York Times, on Tuesday the United States recorded more than 380,000 cases.

This news is not nearly as bad as if we were learning this a year and a half ago or even this time last year. Roughly 60% of all Americans have received two vaccination shots, which greatly lessens the impact of the potentially deadly contagion. Also, it appears that the Omicron variant, which has more transmissibility, is less deadly than the variants that preceded it.

This is largely why, according to Dr. Jha in an appearance on ABC’s This Week noted that Covid cases are no longer a meaningful way to measure the impact of the pandemic, and the focus should instead be on hospitalizations and deaths.