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Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations across the country are breaking records day after day as the omicron variant rages on.
The United States has set a seven-day-average record for Covid cases every day over the last week, according to an analysis of NBC News’ case numbers and Department of Health and Human Services hospitalization data. In that time period, 33 states, Washington, D.C., and two territories have set records for cases, hospitalizations, or both.
On Monday, the U.S. recorded 1 million new Covid cases, according to data compiled by NBC News.
The number of records being set reinforces recent studies and statements from the World Health Organization that the omicron variant is spreading faster than any previously detected strain of the coronavirus.
“We have learned by now that we underestimate this virus at our peril,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said last month. “Even if omicron does cause less severe disease, the sheer number of cases could once again overwhelm unprepared health systems.”
Twenty-seven states, Washington and two territories have set seven-day-average records for case numbers since Dec. 28.
New Jersey set a case record each day in that period, with the average count ballooning from 15,000 cases per day to more than 27,000, while New York’s average number of cases set six records, from 37,000 to a peak of more than 71,000 average cases per day. Average case numbers in Puerto Rico, which has one of the highest rates of cases in the past week, nearly doubled, from 5,100 to 9,900.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
