The US just hit a record average of daily new Covid-19 cases

[left-of-center2012]

The US hit a seven-day average of 254,496 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University data -- blowing past the country's previous record of about 251,989 daily cases, reported on January 11.

The record comes amid a rapid acceleration of infections that the US -- and the rest of the world -- has seen since last month. Tuesday's seven-day average is still in progress and may rise when the day ends.

And experts predict that the Omicron variant -- the most contagious strain of coronavirus yet -- is going to make the start of 2022 very difficult.

"January is going to be a really, really hard month. And people should just brace themselves for a month where lots of people are going to get infected," said Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health.

CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner told CNN on Sunday he believes the US could "see half a million cases a day -- easy -- sometime over the next week to 10 days."

"A lot of people who have not gotten a vaccine are going to end up getting pretty sick, and it's going to be pretty disruptive," Jha said. "My hope is as we get into February and certainly by the time we get into March, infection numbers will come way down, and it'll also start getting (into) spring, and the weather will start getting better. And that will also help."

Most people who are vaccinated and boosted won't get severe illness, but that won't be true for the unvaccinated, Jha said.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/28/us/us-coronavirus-tuesday/index.html

[Ms. Toad]

1. I figured it woudl be today or tomorrow.

They also set records for single day total cases on the 24th and 28th (309K and 313K) surpassing the prior record on January 8 of 306K