Iran Press/ America: The number of people infected with the coronavirus in the United States has reached 55,609,910, of whom 846,902 have died, the Worldometers news website reported Saturday morning.
For the last seven days, the U.S. has averaged more than 316,000 new cases a day, the highest recorded level since the start of the pandemic.
The actual number of people who contracted COVID-19 in the U.S. is likely higher because not everyone who contracts the virus will seek out a test or report an at-home positive test.
The surge in cases comes as the highly contagious omicron variant of COVID-19 spreads rapidly throughout the country. Earlier this week, health officials said that while the newly-discovered strain is highly infectious, all signs point to it causing less severe disease than past strains. 219
