More than a year after the vaccine was launched, the number of new COVID-19 cases in the United States has soared to the highest level on record, with an average of more than 265,000 cases per day. This surge is mainly driven by the highly infectious variant of omicron.

According to data kept by Johns Hopkins University, the number of new cases per day in the past two weeks has more than doubled, surpassing the old record of 250,000 set in mid-January.

The rapidly spreading mutant version of the virus casts a shadow over Christmas and New Year, forcing communities to shrink or cancel their celebrations a few weeks after it seems that Americans are about to enjoy an almost normal holiday. Thousands of flights have been cancelled due to the shortage of personnel caused by the virus.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, a top US infectious disease expert, said on Wednesday that there is no need to cancel vaccinations and strengthen small family gatherings between family and friends.

But “if you plan to go to a New Year’s Eve party for 40 to 50 people, all the bells and whistles, everyone hugs and kisses and wishes each other a happy new year, I strongly recommend that we don’t do that this year,” he said.

The threat of omicron and the desire to spend holidays with friends and relatives prompted many Americans to be tested for COVID-19.

Aravindh Shankar, 24, flew from West Lafayette, Indiana, to San Jose, California on Christmas Day to reunite with his family. Although he feels good, he decided to take the test on Wednesday for safety reasons because he has been on the plane.

Before he went to a location in a parking lot near San Jose Airport, he and his family spent almost a whole day looking for test appointments for him.

“It’s actually unexpectedly difficult,” Shankar said of trying to find a test. “It’s definitely harder for some people.”

The situation in other parts of the world is severe, especially in Europe. World Health Organization Director-General Tan Desai said that he is worried that the combination of omicron and delta variants will produce a “tsunami” of cases. He said this will “put tremendous pressure on exhausted health workers and the health system on the verge of collapse.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the number of COVID-19 Americans currently hospitalized is approximately 60,000, which is about half of the figure in January.

Although the hospitalization rate sometimes lags behind the number of cases, the hospital data may reflect the protection provided by the vaccine and the possibility that omicron will not make people sick like the previous version.

In the past two weeks, the number of COVID-19 deaths in the United States has climbed from an average of 1,200 per day to approximately 1,500.

Public health experts will pay close attention to the numbers for the next week to understand the effectiveness of vaccines in preventing serious diseases, keeping people away from hospitals and reducing stress on exhausted medical staff, said Bob Bednatchik, Professor of Global Health and Health . Epidemiology at Emory University.

He said that CDC data has shown that the hospitalization rate of unvaccinated people is much higher than that of vaccinated people, even if the effectiveness of the vaccine decreases over time.

Bednarczyk said: “If we can survive this surge with minimal disruption to the entire healthcare system, then this is where the vaccine really shows its value.”

According to Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Health Safety Center in the Bloomberg School of Public Health, the number of hospitalizations is extremely unlikely to rise to the previous peak. Vaccines and treatments developed since last year have made it easier to contain the spread of the virus and minimize the serious impact on people with breakthrough infections.

“People need some time to adjust to the fact that the case is different from the past,” Adalia said. “We have many defensive measures.”

But he added that even if the number of hospitalizations has decreased compared with the surge in the past, the virus could cause serious damage to hospitals and medical staff.

“In a way, these hospitalizations are worse because they are preventable,” he said.

Several European countries, including France, Greece, the United Kingdom and Spain, also reported a record number of cases this week, prompting Greece to ban music during New Year celebrations and renewed efforts by the French authorities to encourage vaccination.

The WHO reported that the number of new COVID-19 cases worldwide last week increased by 11% compared to the previous week, and nearly 4.99 million cases were recorded from December 20th to 26th. However, the United Nations health agency has also noticed that the number of cases in South Africa has decreased, and omicron was first detected in South Africa more than a month ago.