New cases of Covid-19 in the US have soared to the highest level on record at over 265,000 per day on average, a surge driven largely by the highly contagious omicron variant. The previous mark was 250,000 cases per day, set in mid-January. Covid-19 deaths in the US have climbed over the past two weeks from an average of 1,200 per day to around 1,500.