U.S. coronavirus cases have peaked, with hospitalization rising by Reuters

(Reuters) – The average number of daily confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States was a record 258,312 in the last seven days, a Reuters count showed on Wednesday as U.S. officials looked at the effect of the more transmissible variant of Omicron.

The previous seven-day moving average peak was 250,141 cases confirmed on January 8 this year. Daily records have been broken this week in at least seven European nations.

The rise comes when Americans travel on vacation. Hundreds of flights have been canceled every day since Christmas because the airline staff tested positive for coronavirus. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said it was monitoring 86 cruise ships that reported COVID-19 cases.

Although data from other countries showed fewer illnesses with Omicron, it was too early to measure its impact across the United States, especially given its erratic vaccination rates, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said Wednesday.

However, he said in a call to reporters that although the average number of positive seven-day cases had risen by 60% over the previous week, at the same time the hospitalization rate had risen by only 14% to around 9,000 a day. Deaths fell by about 7 percent to 1,100 a day, he said.

More than 76,000 people have been hospitalized with COVID-19 nationwide, up 19% in the last 10 days, according to a Reuters count.

The CDC released new guidelines this week, shortening the isolation period for people with confirmed infections to 10 to five days, as long as they are asymptomatic. The move was designed in part to alleviate the shortage of staff in hospitals, airlines and other essential services.

Some experts in infectious diseases, however, have blamed politicians for not vaccinating and not vaccinating people who are not vaccinated, as they are cured at different rates by the virus. The new policy also does not require testing to verify that a person is not infectious before returning to work or socializing.

The state, which reported the highest number of daily infections on Tuesday, reported 40,780 cases in New York and more than 30,000 in California. Texas has reported more than 17,000 cases and Ohio more than 15,000.

The Omicron variant was estimated to account for 58.6% of U.S. infections as of Dec. 25, according to CDC data on Tuesday.