US sets COVID record with more than 1 million daily cases

The US recorded more than 1 million COVID-19 new cases Monday — a daily record for any country since the pandemic began.

The 1,082,549 COVID-19 cases reported by Johns Hopkins University comes as the highly contagious Omicron variant rages across the country.

The startling figure is the largest single-day tally of any nation ever reported and nearly double the previous US record of 590,000 cases set just four days ago, Bloomberg News reported.

The massive caseload is also more than double the highest total reported by any nation during the ongoing pandemic that began more than two years ago – 414,000 people who were diagnosed in India amid its Delta surge in May 2021.

Some 1,688 virus deaths were reported Monday, according to the Johns Hopkins University data. That’s well behind the all-time high of 4,442 set in January 2021, indicating the rising rates of cases have not led to widespread deaths.