New COVID-19 cases in US soar to highest levels on record

CHICAGO (AP) — More than a year after the vaccine was rolled out, new cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. have soared to the highest level on record at over 265,000 per day on average. The surge has been driven largely by the highly contagious omicron variant. The previous mark was 250,000 cases per day, set in mid-January 2021, according to data kept by Johns Hopkins University.