Beautiful Virgin Islands

Wednesday, Jul 23, 2025

Over 1 Million People Reported Positive In A Single Day As The US Struggles With The Omicron Wave

Over 1 Million People Reported Positive In A Single Day As The US Struggles With The Omicron Wave

“I wish I hadn’t exposed any of my coworkers, but I didn’t know,” said one person who tested positive after multiple negative at-home tests.

The US set a global record on Monday with 1 million new COVID cases reported in a single day, as the highly contagious Omicron variant spreads and accounts for the majority of cases across the nation.

The 1,017,376 cases recorded on Jan. 3 by the New York Times come with a few caveats: The long holiday weekend caused a backlog in reporting cases, which boosted the number reported on a single day. Meanwhile, testing has been hard to access, which means more people may be positive than what has been recorded.

What we do know is that the country is in a very steep growth period for new cases, with a seven-day rolling average of 480,916. This new phase of the coronavirus pandemic has strained testing availability, disrupted businesses, and frustrated those who are fully vaccinated but catching Omicron, although the vaccines are reducing serious illness and death.

Lines show seven-day rolling averages


Still, the number of people hospitalized with COVID is surging past the peak of the Delta variant wave in early September 2021, and the percentage of PCR tests turning up positive is at the highest it’s ever been during the pandemic, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services.

Bay Area resident Brittany McCulley woke up with a sniffly nose, itchy throat, and a minor cough Tuesday morning and immediately went to get tested for COVID. The 22-year-old hairstylist is 27 weeks pregnant, fully vaccinated, and received a booster dose to protect her from the virus. The test was positive.

“I immediately started crying,” McCulley told BuzzFeed News, adding that she felt “absolutely horrified,” “scared,” and “exhausted” by the news. “I’m tired of people acting like nothing is going to affect them, that if they get it, it’s fine because it’ll be ‘mild,’ while it poses serious risks to other people around them.”

Brittany McCulley is 27 weeks pregnant and tested positive for COVID, despite the fact she is fully vaccinated and boosted.


McCulley will now miss work and two prenatal doctor’s appointments over the next 10 days.

“I’m going to struggle to pay bills now,” she said.

She believes she was exposed at work because coworkers have also begun to feel sick. McCulley said her major concern is potential complications to her pregnancy, such as preterm labor (a risk researchers have stressed for pregnant people who contract the virus).

People such as McCulley, who tested positive after the holidays, posted on social media about their need to change flights at the last minute or voiced concern that family members may also test positive.

Jose Martinez, 7 (center left), and his sister Julissa, 5, stand with their parents outside the entrance to their school after winter break.


Doctor's appointments, school schedules, and employers have all been thrown into a confusing reality about how to best mitigate the virus and continue in any form of normalcy. Those testing positive also said they are feeling ashamed of putting colleagues and loved ones at risk.

“I’m frustrated more than anything because I wish I hadn’t exposed any of my coworkers, but I didn’t know,” said Lark W., who works at a rock climbing gym in Salt Lake City.

Lark (who did not share their last name for privacy reasons) is fully vaccinated and has a booster shot scheduled for next week. They were exposed to COVID on Dec. 26 and took at-home tests on Dec. 29 and 30, each of which returned a negative result.

“I did the best I could with the resources I had,” the 22-year-old told BuzzFeed News.

Citing the negative tests, they made the decision to go to work. But over the holiday weekend, Lark started feeling sick. On Tuesday morning, they tested positive.

“The fact that there’s so many cases makes it even more maddening that there’s absolutely no support,” they said. “I’m the ninth or tenth person at my job to test positive in the last couple months, and the best they’ve offered is reminding us of the three paid sick days we get per year.”

But three days won’t make up for the extra seven days of lost income.

“I don’t really care about the effect of this on my social life; I can spend 10 days at home no problem,” they said, “but I can’t afford to not work.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its isolation guidelines on Dec. 27, recommending a shorter five-day quarantine period for asymptomatic people, and then again on Tuesday with additional recommendations around antigen testing and travel.


Soaring cases are also coming at a time when high numbers of non-COVID patients are being admitted to emergency rooms for other reasons, experts say, straining resources. According to the HHS data, about 26% of ICU beds are being used for COVID cases as of Tuesday (of 5,448 national hospitals who report this data to the department).

The federal government’s response has been to reiterate the importance of vaccination, the necessity of wearing a mask, and the value of testing and other available methods to stop the spread of the virus.

“You can control how big an impact Omicron is going to have on your health,” President Joe Biden said Tuesday in remarks regarding the record number of reported cases. “If you’re unvaccinated, you have some reason to be alarmed.”

Biden also announced that FEMA has been ordered to provide additional hospital beds and that his administration will double the number of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID treatment pills to 20 million. The first batch of the FDA-approved oral drug was shipped out on Dec. 24.

“They’re a game changer,” Biden said about the pill, which takes months to manufacture. “Production is in full swing.”

But testing remains a frustration around the country, with long lines, a lack of rapid antigen tests, and few ways for people who test positive at home to report that to authorities. Starting next week, insurance providers will be required to reimburse people for at-home tests. Biden said a government website will launch later this month where people can request free at-home tests.

The virus has also posed an issue for schools returning from the holiday break this week. Public school districts in Newark, Atlanta, Milwaukee, and Cleveland have even opted to revert to virtual learning amid the rise in cases, marking a regression to safety measures made early in the pandemic.

Although the federal government is pushing hard for schools to remain open, many have struggled with staffing as teachers and administrators become ill themselves. And students who test positive risk falling behind as classes commence.

Tiki Duquella is a fully vaccinated student at a private high school in Knoxville, Tennessee. He tested positive for COVID on Tuesday and will have to miss a week of school and cancel a weekend trip to New York to visit friends. While his symptoms are “very minimal,” he said, he was glad a test confirmed they were COVID-related.

“I went to get a test because my school started up again and I did not want to get my classmates/faculty sick,” Duquella said. Like so many in the country, he is already struggling to catch up just days into the new year. “It’s the first week, so I feel like it will be pretty difficult to start my second semester a week behind,” he said.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
US Treasury Secretary Calls for Institutional Review of Federal Reserve Amid AI‑Driven Growth Expectations
UK Government Considers Dropping Demand for Apple Encryption Backdoor
Severe Flooding in South Korea Claims Lives Amid Ongoing Rescue Operations
Japanese Man Discovers Family Connection Through DNA Testing After Decades of Separation
Russia Signals Openness to Ukraine Peace Talks Amid Escalating Drone Warfare
Switzerland Implements Ban on Mammography Screening
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
Pogacar Extends Dominance with Stage Fifteen Triumph at Tour de France
CEO Resigns Amid Controversy Over Relationship with HR Executive
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
US Revokes Visas of Brazilian Corrupted Judges Amid Fake Bolsonaro Investigation
U.S. Congress Approves Rescissions Act Cutting Federal Funding for NPR and PBS
North Korea Restricts Foreign Tourist Access to New Seaside Resort
Brazil's Supreme Court Imposes Radical Restrictions on Former President Bolsonaro
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Judge Criticizes DOJ Over Secrecy in Dropping Charges Against Gang Leader
Apple Closes $16.5 Billion Tax Dispute With Ireland
Von der Leyen Faces Setback Over €2 Trillion EU Budget Proposal
UK and Germany Collaborate on Global Military Equipment Sales
Trump Plans Over 10% Tariffs on African and Caribbean Nations
Flying Taxi CEO Reclaims Billionaire Status After Stock Surge
Epstein Files Deepen Republican Party Divide
Zuckerberg Faces $8 Billion Privacy Lawsuit From Meta Shareholders
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
SpaceX Nears $400 Billion Valuation With New Share Sale
Microsoft, US Lab to Use AI for Faster Nuclear Plant Licensing
Trump Walks Back Talk of Firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell
Zelensky Reshuffles Cabinet to Win Support at Home and in Washington
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Irish Tech Worker Detained 100 days by US Authorities for Overstaying Visa
Dimon Warns on Fed Independence as Trump Administration Eyes Powell’s Succession
Church of England Removes 1991 Sexuality Guidelines from Clergy Selection
Superman Franchise Achieves Success with Latest Release
Hungary's Viktor Orban Rejects Agreements on Illegal Migration
Jeff Bezos Considers Purchasing Condé Nast as a Wedding Gift
Ghislaine Maxwell Says She’s Ready to Testify Before Congress on Epstein’s Criminal Empire
Bal des Pompiers: A Celebration of Community and Firefighter Culture in France
FBI Chief Kash Patel Denies Resignation Speculations Amid Epstein List Controversy
Air India Pilot’s Mental Health Records Under Scrutiny
Google Secures Windsurf AI Coding Team in $2.4 Billion Licence Deal
Jamie Dimon Warns Europe Is Losing Global Competitiveness and Flags Market Complacency
South African Police Minister Suspended Amid Organised Crime Allegations
Nvidia CEO Claims Chinese Military Reluctance to Use US AI Technology
Hong Kong Advances Digital Asset Strategy to Address Economic Challenges
Australia Rules Out Pre‑commitment of Troops, Reinforces Defence Posture Amid US‑China Tensions
Martha Wells Says Humanity Still Far from True Artificial Intelligence
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
U.S. Resumes Deportations to Third Countries After Supreme Court Ruling
Excavation Begins at Site of Mass Grave for Children at Former Irish Institution
×