US logs over 1 mn daily Covid cases again

Washington, Jan 20 (IANS) Amid the unabated Covid-19 resurgence fuelled by the highly-transmissible Omicron variant, the US has again logged over 1 million new cases after setting a global record of over 1.36 million fresh infections earlier this month, according to latest data from Johns Hopkins University.

A total of 1,060,747 new cases and 1,896 new deaths were reported across the country on Tuesday, reports Xinhua news agency citing the data published on Wednesday.

The country recorded as high as over 5.4 million Covid-19 cases in the week from January 10 to 16, a record high weekly case count since the onset of the pandemic in the country, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

The US has witnessed new Covid-19 surge since mid December due to the highly infectious Omicron variant.

The country is now averaging nearly 755,000 new cases and nearly 1,700 new deaths each day, up significantly week by week, according to latest data of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While infection cases nationwide continue to rise, New York City's surge of Covid-19 cases fuelled by the Omicron variant appears to be falling just as quickly as it rose, according to a ABC News report.

Tens of thousands of infections are still being reported in New York City every day.

However, after new cases increased 26-fold in just one month, they have now fallen by 57 per cent over the last week, an ABC News analysis found.

As of Thursday morning, the US' overall caseload and death toll stood at 68,508,181 and 857,672, according to the Johns Hopkins University's latest update.

The two tallies are the highest in the world.