COVID-19 treatment at a Paris hospital (Photo: AFP/VNA)

Globally single-day infections have, for the first time, exceeded 3 million in the past 24 hours. The most cases were reported in the US (743,000), followed by France, Italy, and Spain.

Many countries have reported unprecedentedly high infection rates as the Omicron variant quickly spreads.

On Wednesday, Australia announced 17,000 new cases, while Japan detected more than 13,000, a record high.

Germany reported 80,000 new cases on Wednesday, the worst single-day number since the pandemic began two years ago. 368,000 cases were reported in France, another single-day record. 

A single-day record of 44,000 coronavirus cases were reported on Wednesday in Israel, the first country in the world to administer a 4^th vaccine dose.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared that Russia has two weeks to brace itself for a possible new surge caused by the Omicron variant.

Researchers from Washington University predict that the current COVID-19 surge in the US, fueled by the Omicron variant, will peak next week.