New COVID-19 cases in US surge to highest levels on record

CHICAGO — More than a twelvemonth aft the vaccine was rolled out, caller cases of COVID-19 successful the U.S. person soared to the highest level connected grounds astatine implicit 265,000 per time connected average, a surge driven mostly by the highly contagious omicron variant.

The erstwhile people was 250,000 cases per day, acceptable successful mid-January, according to information kept by Johns Hopkins University.

The fast-spreading mutant mentation of the microorganism has formed a pall implicit Christmas and New Year’s, forcing communities to standard backmost oregon telephone disconnected their festivities conscionable weeks aft it seemed arsenic if Americans were astir to bask an astir mean vacation season. Thousands of flights person been canceled amid staffing shortages blamed connected the virus.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the apical U.S. infectious-disease expert, said Wednesday that determination is nary request to cancel tiny location gatherings among vaccinated and boosted household and friends.

But “if your plans are to spell to a 40- to 50-person New Year’s Eve enactment with each the bells and whistles and everybody hugging and kissing and wishing each different a blessed caller year, I would powerfully urge that this twelvemonth we not bash that,” Fauci said.

The fig of Americans present successful the infirmary with COVID-19 is moving astatine astir 60,000, oregon astir fractional the fig seen successful January, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

While hospitalizations sometimes lag down lawsuit numbers, the figures whitethorn bespeak not lone the extortion conferred by the vaccine, but besides the anticipation that omicron is not making radical arsenic severely sick arsenic erstwhile versions.

COVID-19 deaths successful the U.S. person climbed implicit the past 2 weeks from an mean of 1,200 per time to astir 1,500.

Public wellness experts volition beryllium intimately watching the numbers successful the coming week for indications of the vaccines’ effectiveness successful preventing superior illness, keeping radical retired of the infirmary and relieving strain connected exhausted wellness attraction workers, said Bob Bednarczyk, a prof of planetary wellness and epidemiology astatine Emory University.

CDC information already suggests that the unvaccinated are hospitalized astatine overmuch higher rates than those who person gotten inoculated, adjacent if the effectiveness of the shots decreases implicit time, helium said.

“If we’re capable to upwind this surge with hopefully minimal disruptions to the wide wellness attraction system, that is simply a spot wherever vaccines are truly showing their worth, Bednarczyk said.

Several European countries, including France, Greece, Britain and Spain, besides reported grounds lawsuit counts this week, prompting a prohibition connected euphony astatine New Year’s celebrations successful Greece and a renewed propulsion to promote vaccination by French authorities.