The United States set a new grim pandemic record Tuesday, shattering its seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the U.S. averaged 265,427 new infections a day last week, flying by the country’s previous high tally of about 252,000 cases set in January 2020.
As the omicron variant spreads, experts believe that daily case load could come close to doubling.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is encouraging all Americans to get fully vaccinated, which includes a booster shot, in order to stave off the worst of a possible infection, but only about 33% of the U.S. is fully vaccinated and boosted.
The new record comes after daily coronavirus test positivity rate in New York almost touched 20% Tuesday and the rate of pediatric hospitalizations in the city had increased, generally considered a harbinger of things to come for the rest of the country.
The skyrocketing average of cases comes days after the CDC recommended that asymptomatic people reduce their quarantine time to five days with an additional five days of mask-wearing.
“The change is motivated by science demonstrating that the majority of SARS-CoV-2 transmission occurs early in the course of illness, generally in the 1-2 days prior to onset of symptoms and the 2-3 days after,” the CDC said in a statement.
