US sets global daily record of over one million virus cases

More than 1 million people in the US were diagnosed with Covid-19 on Monday as a tsunami of omicron swamps every aspect of daily American life.

The highly mutated variant drove US cases to a record, the most -- by a large margin -- that any country has ever reported. Monday’s number is almost double the previous record of about 590,000 set just four days ago in the US, which itself was a doubling from the prior week. 

It is also more than twice the case count seen anywhere else at any time since the pandemic began more than two years ago. The highest number outside the US came during India’s delta surge, when more than 414,000 people were diagnosed on May 7, 2021. 

The stratospheric numbers being posted in the US come even as many Americans are relying on tests they take at home, with results that aren’t reported to official government authorities. That means the record is surely a significant under-estimate.