The United States made a world record reporting the highest-ever 1 million -- over 10 lakh -- daily Covid cases on Monday, as Omicron-led wave penetrates through the country.
America's Monday figures are almost double than its previously reported high of 5,90,000 daily cases during the earlier waves.
The diagnosis of new daily Covid cases has affected every aspect of life in the country pushing further peoples' new year plans, delaying in reopening of schools, cancellation of flights among other chaos.
Some school systems around the U.S. extended their holiday break Monday or switched back to online instruction because of the explosion in COVID-19 cases, while others pressed ahead with in-person classes amid a seemingly growing sense that Americans will have to learn to co-exist with the virus.
Caught between pleas from teachers fearful of infection and parents who want their children in class, school districts in cities such as New York, Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit and beyond found themselves in a difficult position midway through the academic year because of the super-contagious omicron variant.
New York City, home of the nation’s largest school system, reopened classrooms to roughly 1 million students with a stockpile of take-home COVID-19 test kits and plans to double the number of random tests done in schools.
More than 4,000 flights were cancelled globally in the past 24 hours, more than half of which were in the US, as new Covid-19 cases driven by the Omicron variant continue to cause staff shortages at airlines and airports amid a busy holiday travel season.
Worldwide, 4,020 flights had been cancelled by Sunday afternoon, according to flight tracker FlightAware, with 2,393 of them being within, into, or out of the US, reports Xinhua news agency. Another 4,519 US flights were delayed on Sunday.
US news portal Axios said that some 4,700 domestic flights have been cancelled this weekend, with poor weather conditions contributing to delays already exacerbated by the Omicron variant in the US, where the Covid-19 record was shattered again on December 30 with over 580,000 daily cases reported nationwide.
(With inputs from AP)
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