As the United States always wants to be the champion in every field, it has 1.42 million Covid 19 cases in a day, shattering global record. The United States reported 1.417 million new coronavirus infections on 10 Jan, according to a Reuters tally, the highest daily total for any country in the world as the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant showed no signs of slowing.

The previous record was 1.35 million cases on Jan. 9. A large number of cases are reported each Monday due to many states not reporting over the weekend. The seven-day average for new cases has tripled in two weeks to over 700,000 new infections a day as shown on the chart below. The number of daily new cases is still surging up so rapidly.

The record in new cases came the same day as the nation saw the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients also hit an all-time high, having doubled in three weeks, according to a Reuters tally. There were more than 136,604 people hospitalized with COVID-19, surpassing the record of 132,051 set in January last year.While the Omicron variant is potentially less severe, health officials have warned that the sheer number of infections could strain hospital systems, some of which have already suspended elective procedures as they struggle to handle the increase in patients and staff shortages.

The surge in cases has disrupted schools, which are struggling with absences of staff, teachers and bus drivers. Chicago cancelled classes for a fourth day as the district and teachers failed to agree on how to deal with increased infections. New York City suspended service on three subway lines as a large number of workers were out sick, according to its Twitter account. Companies' plans for workers to return to office have also been derailed.

Deaths are averaging 1,700 per day, up from about 1,400 in recent days. US is the current gold medal champion in the Covid 19 race. US has a total of 62.66 million Covid 19 cases and 861,336 deaths as shown on the table above.  

Covid 19 cases in Malaysia

Comparing with US, Malaysia has done very well as far as the management of the Covid 19 pandemic is concerned. In August we have more than 22,000 daily-new Covid 19 cases. The number of Covid 19 cases is dropping very rapidly. On 10 Jan we only have 2,841 daily new Covid 19 cases. The 7-day average number of new daily cases was only 3,117 as shown on the chart below. 

Although our current Malaysian Government has done many things wrong, it has done very well in the control of the spread on the coronavirus. Currently, about 80% of our population have been fully vaccinated with 2 doses and about 25% of our population have the booster shots.