According to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University, the United States is recording an average of over 265,000 daily COVID-19 cases. That’s the highest average of daily cases since the pandemic began, breaking the old record of 250,000 set back in January. New cases per day have more than doubled over the past two weeks.
“The rapid increase in cases we are seeing across the country is in large part a reflection of the exceptionally transmissible Omicron variant,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said at Wednesday’s White House COVID-19 Response Team briefing. “In a few short weeks, Omicron has rapidly increased across the country and, we expect, will continue to circulate in the coming weeks.”
In addition to fueling the rise in the average of daily COVID-19 cases, the Omicron variant has had wide-ranging effects on Americans to end 2021. New Year’s Eve festivities are being scaled back and thousands of flights have been canceled amid staffing shortages blamed on the variant. Omicron is even affecting the sex trafficking trial of Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, with the judge asking the jury to work longer hours and more days in order to get a verdict as quickly as possible.
Still, the nation’s top infectious disease expert said there is no need to cancel small home gatherings among vaccinated and boosted family and friends.
“If you are in a situation with a family setting in your home with family, parents, children, grandparents, and everyone is vaccinated and boosted, although the risk is never zero in anything, the risk is low enough that we feel you should continue to go through with those plans,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said. But he added “if your plans are to go to a 40- or 50-person New Year’s Eve party with all the bells and whistles and everybody hugging and kissing and wishing each other a Happy New Year, I would strongly recommend that this year we do not do that.”
Meanwhile, the latest World Health Organization numbers show the number of COVID-19 cases recorded worldwide increased by 11% last week compared with the previous week. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he’s worried about the Omicron and Delta variants producing a “tsunami” of cases between them.
“Right now, Delta and omicron are twin threats that are driving up cases to record numbers, which again is leading to spikes in hospitalizations and deaths,” Ghebreyesus said. “This virus will continue to evolve and threaten our health system if we don’t improve the collective response.”
