US One-Day Record of 1M+ COVID-19 Positives Includes New Year’s Backlog

More than 1 million COVID-19 cases were registered Monday (Jan. 3) in the U.S., setting a single-day record, but with the caveat that the number included a testing backlog for coronavirus tests done during the New Year’s holiday weekend, according to a report in The Financial Times.

Even without the backlog, the U.S. has continued to see a surge in positive COVID-19 cases across the nation for several weeks as the omicron variant continues its highly transmissible spread during holiday gatherings and life in general.

The seven-day rolling average for the U.S. through Monday was almost 470,000 positive cases, with the 1.08 million new cases — the highest number in the U.S. since the start of the pandemic, according to Johns Hopkins University — boosting the overall average significantly, FT reported.

The most recent weekly average is about double the total from a week earlier.

President Joe Biden on Tuesday (Jan. 4) said vaccinated Americans should “be concerned about omicron, but don’t be alarmed,” adding it’s “highly unlikely” vaccinated people would become “seriously ill” from the variant.

Unvaccinated people have “some reason to be alarmed,” said Biden, and again pushed for adults and eligible children to get their vaccinations and booster shots.

“You will experience severe illness in many cases,” he said to unvaccinated Americans. “Some will die, needlessly die.”

The Biden administration plans to double its order of Pfizer vaccinations from 10 million to 20 million, with plans to deliver them “in the months ahead.”

Related: Fauci: US Should ‘Seriously’ Weigh Vaccine Edict for National Air Travel

Last week in an interview with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to Biden, said U.S. officials should weigh making vaccinations for COVID-19 a requirement for travelers taking domestic flights, noting that requiring vaccinations would incentivize more people to get the shots.

Fauci made a similar suggestion for a travel-related vaccine mandate in September and was quickly rebuffed by the U.S. Travel Association. The group said that, while vaccines are the “fastest path back to normalcy for all,” it didn’t endorse the mandate.