WASHINGTON: The United States recorded more than one million Covid-19 cases on Monday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, as the Omicron variant spread at a blistering pace.

There were 1,080,211 new cases in the country, a global record, with the number of cases doubling on the previous week.

It comes a day after top US pandemic advisor Anthony Fauci said the country was experiencing “almost a vertical increase” in Covid-19 cases, adding the peak may be only weeks away.

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The heavily mutated Omicron strain — the most transmissible to date — accounted for around 59 percent of national US cases in the week ending December 25, according to government modeling.