New Covid-19 cases in US soar to record level

A man is tested for Covid-19, at a testing site in Miami (Rebecca Blackwell/AP)

New cases of Covid-19 in the US have soared to the highest level on record at more than 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, according to data kept by Johns Hopkins University.