NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) - More than one million people in the United States were diagnosed with Covid-19 on Monday (Jan 3) as the Omicron tsunami swamps every aspect of daily American life.

The highly mutated variant drove US cases to a record, the most - by a large margin - that any country has ever reported since the pandemic began more than two years ago.

Monday's number is almost double the previous record of about 590,000 set just four days ago in the US, which itself was a doubling from the prior week.

America's daily case count on Monday was more than twice the number seen in any other country at any time.

The highest number outside the US came during India's Delta surge, when more than 414,000 people were diagnosed on May 7, 2021.

The stratospheric numbers being posted in the US come even as many Americans are relying on tests they take at home, with results that are not reported to official government authorities.

This means that the new record is surely a significant underestimation.

The surging infections have led to cancelled flights, closed schools and offices, overwhelmed hospitals and strangled supply chains.

The data from Johns Hopkins University is complete as at midnight eastern time in Baltimore, and delays in reporting over the holidays may have played a role in the rising rates.