US Records Highest-Ever Average New Covid Cases: Report

Almost 9,000 patients are being admitted every day, according to data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The United States has reached its highest-ever average of new Covid cases, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, as the Omicron variant spread at a blistering pace.

The moving seven-day average of new cases was 265,427 as of Tuesday, surpassing the previous peak of 251,989 set in mid-January 2021, a tracker maintained by the university showed.

Ahead of Johns Hopkins releasing the data, Harvard epidemiologist and immunologist Michael Mina tweeted the count was likely the "tip of the iceberg" with the true number of cases likely far higher, because of a shortage of tests and results from home tests not being included.

The heavily-mutated Omicron strain, which according to government modeling accounted for around 59 percent of national US cases in the week ending December 25, is the most transmissible seen to date.