Joe Biden says US on right track in coronavirus fight even as new cases hit record 1.35 million

Scientists say the true tally may have hit a peak of 6 million daily infections as cases go undetected due to asymptomatic patients and lack of testing

Omicron was estimated to account for 98.3 per cent of total new Covid-19 infections in the country as of January 8

Reading Time:3 minutes

People wait in line for their Covid-19 test in Rosemead, California, on January 5. Photo: AFP

Published: 4:08am, 12 Jan 2022

US President Joe Biden and top health officials on Tuesday defended the administration’s response to the unrelenting pandemic as daily US Covid-19 cases reached a new high, largely fuelled by the highly contagious Omicron variant.

Biden, who has been accused of focusing on vaccinations at the expense of testing and support for struggling health care systems, told reporters on Tuesday he was “confident we’re on the right track” to fight the pandemic.

The United States reported 1.35 million new coronavirus infections on Monday, according to a Reuters tally, the highest daily total for any country in the world.

Omicron was estimated to account for 98.3 per cent of total new coronavirus cases circulating in the country as of January 8, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Tuesday.

US CDC Director Dr Rochelle Walensky (left) and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases head Dr Anthony Fauci testify during a Senate Health, Education, Labour, and Pensions Committee hearing on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

There were more than 135,500 people hospitalised with Covid-19, surpassing the record of 132,051 set in January last year. The surge in cases and hospitalisations has forced Americans to cancel travel plans, closed entertainment venues, and scrambled plans for students and teachers to return to school and workers to go back to the office.