US Confirmed Over 441,000 New COVID Cases Tuesday, A Record

The United States recorded an all-time high number of coronavirus cases Tuesday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The U.S. saw 441,278 new cases Tuesday, the CDC reported, far more than the previous high of 294,015 set in January. The new record comes after officials confirmed about 290,000 cases just over a week ago amid another spike driven in part by the Omicron variant in states across the country.

The CDC’s seven-day moving average now stands at just over 240,000 cases per day.

While the new variant has rippled across the country just a month after the first cases were reported in South Africa, most infections have been relatively mild, especially among Americans who are vaccinated and boosted. Unvaccinated Americans are over 12 times more likely to become hospitalized with the virus, CDC data show, and they are nearly 20 times more likely to die of the virus.

Thanks to the vaccines, overall deaths have not reflected the skyrocketing case counts. While the country is averaging over 1,000 deaths a day, according to CDC data, the majority are among unvaccinated populations, and the average is far below the nearly 2,000 daily deaths in seen in September.