U.S., Britain set new COVID-19 records as Omicron surges

Dec. 29 (UPI) -- The United States, Britain, France and Australia are among countries reporting record high COVID-19 cases as Omicron surges around the world.

On Tuesday, the United States set a record high for single-day COVID-19 infections, with 441,278 new cases.

The new spike surpasses the 252,776-case record, set last January.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Delta variant accounted for 41.1% of cases, while Omicron accounted for 58.6%.

In Britain, cases peaked on Tuesday with 129,471 new cases, the highest yet.

However, figures did not include numbers from Scotland and Northern Ireland, due to reporting practices over the holidays.

And in France, a record 208,000 new cases were reported for Tuesday.

The daily figure is the highest for both France and Europe since the pandemic began two years ago.