Who US reports over 1.3 million new COVID-19 cases in 24 hours | Hospitalisations soar to a record high

Its own grim record over 1.3 million covid cases have been recorded in a single 24-hour period this is the highest single day surge recorded by any country anywhere in the world America's previous record was over one million cases per day the data dump came on Monday after several states refrained from reporting case numbers over the weekend that may have spiked the surge yet further the Seven day average tally for fresh cases has now tripled to over 700 000 new infections every day in just two weeks this is not the only landmark recorded the also surpassed its previous record of hospitalizations per day there were more than 136 thousand people hospitalized across the country as of yesterday the surge is disrupting schools subways offices and airlines Chicago has closed schools entirely for a fourth successive day that a result of a dispute between city authorities loyal to president  and the state's powerful teaching union now the city and the union have agreed to resume remote classes from Wednesday m pleased to report that the Chicago teachers union house of delegates voted to end their work stoppage that means teachers will be back in classes tomorrow and all students should return on Wednesday this agreement is the only modicum of safety that is available for anyone that steps foot in the Chicago public school especially in the places in the city where testing is low and where vaccination rates are low meanwhile New york city has suspended services on three subway lines after  workers reported sick and the subway's plans for its own employees to return to the office have also been derailed deaths across the country are now averaging 1 700 per day that's up from about 1400 in recent days joining me now live from Newark york is we on's correspondent  and Susan there's got to be an enormous amount of public disquiet out there because the White House for the last month has relentlessly been telling Americans that the United states has the tools to battle omicron and this surge in Covid 19 cases and yet it evidently does not two years into this pandemic it's hard to believe that the United states would which started really off as uh you know putting out vaccines and in the last administration despite the criticism coming out with  is really lagging behind and trying to really get the essentials out  curb a variant that is perhaps more transmissible but less deadly and the country is essentially as at a standstill as you just reported uh so yes absolutely on the one hand you have the politics of the situation and on the other hand you really have not only essential workers like  sanitation workers police officers metro workers not coming to work because they're sick but on the other hand you have the bureaucracy in Washington on vaccine mandates and whatnot and then to top that off ordinary Americans are not getting proper messaging from  and and and health officials on what to do if they are sick  they really can't get testing either in their hands standing in long lines or what not going to retail stores to really figure out if they are sick or not so yes it is an absolute disaster and uh quote unquote having the tools uh perhaps the tools are there but utilizing the tools by this administration has been an absolute disaster  we should call it for what it is Susan  live for us this morning in Newark  york thanks very much indeed for that update from there [Music] you English (auto-generated) 7:18 NOW PLAYING