The United States has reported more than one million new COVID-19 cases in a single day, setting a new global record, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

There were 1,082,549 new cases in the US reported on Monday following the long New Year’s weekend, according to the tracking group.

The number of cases reported on a Monday is typically higher than other days because of delays in weekend tallying, especially after a three-day holiday weekend.

The new data comes after top US pandemic adviser Dr Anthony Fauci said the country was experiencing “almost a vertical increase” in coronavirus cases. The peak, he said, may be only weeks away.

The Omicron variant, the most transmissible strain to date, accounted for about 59 percent of US cases in the week ending December 25, according to government modelling.

More than 36,400 people in the US have died from COVID-19 in the past 28 days, according to Johns Hopkins data released on Tuesday. The country recorded more than 6.9 million new cases over that period.