NEW YORK, December 29. /TASS/. All-time high daily figures of new COVID-19 cases have been registered in the United States, CNN reported citing data provided by the Johns Hopkins University, which relies on figures provided by international organizations, federal and local authorities.

According to its experts, the average daily number of new cases registered in the United States was 254 496 in the past seven days. The figure exceeds record-high numbers registered in January 2021, when 251,989 cases on average were registered every 24 hours.

The growth in new cases is observed as the Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus is spreading across the country.

The United States is currently at the top of the registered COVID-19 cases, which stand at over 53.1 million, while the death rate in the country exceeds 820,400. Over 4.35 million people contracted the novel coronavirus infection in the past four weeks, and over 38,500 patients died in the reported period.

On November 26, the World Health Organization (WHO) designated the B.1.1.529 variant identified in South Africa as a "Variant of Concern" and assigned it the Greek letter Omicron. In its statement, the WHO noted that "this variant has a large number of mutations, some of which are concerning." According to the WHO, to date, the new strain has been detected in over 100 countries.