COVID-19 cases at highest ever in Americas, says regional health agency

New cases of COVID-19 in the Americas in the past week have been the highest since the pandemic began in 2020 and the very contagious Omicron variant has clearly become the predominant strain, the Pan American Health Organization said on Wednesday.

The United States continues to have the highest number of new infections, although cases decreased by nearly one million over the last week, the regional health agency said.

Mexico's southern states have seen new infections triple and Brazil has seen new cases surge 193% over the last seven days, PAHO said.