More than a year after the vaccines were rolled out, new COVID-19 cases in the US have soared to a record 265,000 per day on average. a surge largely driven by the highly contagious omicron variant.
Daily new cases have more than doubled over the past two weeks, dwarfing the old mark of 250,000 set in mid-January, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Communities have scaled back or called off events just weeks after it seemed Americans were about to enjoy an almost normal holiday season. Thousands of flights have been canceled amid staffing shortages.