U.S. Hits New Daily COVID Record With 1 Million Cases

The United States set a new record for single-day COVID-19 cases on Monday (January 3) after more than 1 million Americans tested positive amid the spike brought on by the omicron variant.

Bloomberg.com reports the 1.062 million reported on Monday nearly doubled the previous record of 590,000 confirmed positive cases, which was set on December 30.

The U.S. total is also more than twice the case count in any other country during any part of the ongoing global pandemic, which is approaching two years in March.

The highest single-day total of confirmed COVID cases outside the U.S. came on May 7, 2021 when India, the world's second most populated nation, reported more than 414,000 cases amid its delta variant surge.

The spike in U.S. cases comes as many Americans have opted to take COVID tests at home, which aren't reported to official government authorities, meaning the totals could be significantly higher than the reported record numbers.

On December 29, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new estimates on coronavirus cases, which predicted more than 44,000 Americans could die from the virus in January.

The CDC reports the death toll in relation to the virus has already increased by about 18%, with an average of 1,546 deaths per day, according to the data released by the agency.

The data also showed the U.S. hit a new seven-day average record of 277,000 new cases per day, which surpassed a previous record of 250,000 cases per day set in January.

Meanwhile, the CDC recently changed its guidance to shorten isolation for asymptomatic cases from 10 to five days this week.

"We know that the most amount of transmission occurs in those one to two days before you develop symptoms (to) those two to three days after you develop symptoms," CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told CNN. "And if you map that out, those five days account for somewhere between 85% to 90% of all transmission that occurs."