The United States registered more than one million new corona infections within 24 hours for the first time on Monday, a worldwide high.

This is what the Johns Hopkins University reported.

However, the value should also be related to late registrations after the New Year's weekend.

The average for the past seven days was 486,000 cases on Monday.

That is an increase of 99 percent compared to the previous week.

The immunologist Anthony Fauci, the chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden, said the curve of new infections in America is currently "almost vertical" because of the particularly contagious omicron variant.

"We are definitely in the middle of a very serious surge and upward trend in cases," Fauci told ABC television.

The fact that the curve of new infections shoots up so steeply is "really unprecedented".

The variant, which was first discovered in South Africa, has dominated infections in America since mid-December.

Children should go to school

Fauci emphasized that developments in South Africa give cause for hope. Omikron was first detected there at the end of November. Shortly before New Year's Eve, the South African government announced that the new corona wave had reached its peak. Fauci pointed out that hospitalization and death rates in the United States have been significantly lower in the past few weeks than in previous waves. He also said that the hospitalization rate will be the relevant focus in the future - less the mere case numbers, as the infections were milder. 100,000 people are currently being treated in hospital for Covid.

The high number of infected people or those who are quarantined as contact persons not only has the potential to overload the healthcare system. For days it has also led to massive failures in air traffic. With a view to the start of classes after the Christmas holidays, Fauci called on parents to have their children vaccinated against Corona, to test them if necessary and to send them to class with a mask. Under these conditions, the risks from Corona are lower than "the harmful effect" of not having classroom teaching.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced that he had contracted the corona virus.

But he only suffers from mild symptoms.

Since he was fully vaccinated and had also received a booster vaccination, his infection was "much milder" than it would otherwise have been the case.

Austin says he will remain in isolation for five days.

During this period he will retain all of his powers and take part virtually in important meetings and discussions "as far as possible".

The CDC disease control agency reduced its isolation recommendation to five days at the end of December.

Austin said that he was last in direct contact with President Joe Biden on December 21 - more than a week before he began to experience symptoms.