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US sees highest single-day spike of 512k Covid cases; California, NY worst-hit
The previous record of the single-day highest cases was on January 8 this year at 294,015.
The United States, which is the worst-hit country from the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic globally, recorded over 512,000 cases in the last 24 hours, the highest single-day spike since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. The total cases have exceeded 54 million.
According to data shared by Johns Hopkins University, as many as 1,762 patients died due to Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, pushing the toll to over 842,000. The active cases and recoveries in the US are at 11,981,273 and 41,325,110 respectively.
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The previous record of the single-day highest cases was on January 8 this year at 294,015.
A report by the Washington Post on Tuesday revealed that the seven-day average of new Covid-19 cases in the United States was 253,245, exceeding the previous high of 248,209 cases on January 12.
The worsening pandemic situation in the country can be attributed to the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Omicron is estimated to be 58.6% of Covid-19 variants circulating in the US. On the other hand, the Delta variant, which was the main reason for the Covid-19 spike earlier this year, is now accounting for 41.1% of all cases in the country.
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California, New York are among the worst-hit states from Covid-19 at present.
California on Tuesday became the first state across the country to report more than five million cases in total. More than 86,000 people tested positive for Covid in the Golden State in the last 24 hours. The US CDC has listed California as an area with “high” transmission of the virus.
In New York too, the daily cases have been increasing at an alarming rate. Amid the Omicron crisis, there has been a surge in the number of children getting hospitalised for Covid. Last Friday, the state's health department warned of an upward trend in pediatric hospitalizations associated with Covid-19.
Meanwhile, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said on Monday that the United States will see a lot of Omicron cases.
However, she said that not all will be severe and many such cases will be asymptomatic. The CDC has recommended shortening the isolation period for all infected Americans from 10 to five days. Similarly, it has also been recommended to cut the time duration that close contacts need to quarantine.
