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The United States reported a new record of 450,000 covid cases on Monday as the country faces the rise of the highly infectious Omicron variant. The figures come days after health authorities halved the mandated isolation time for asymptomatic infection. However, the high figures could be partly due to reporting delays over Christmas.

Lawrence Gostin - Director of Global Health Law at Georgetown University Law Centre - told Newsday the politicisation of health care left it unable to use all the public health tools at its disposal.

"When the Delta variant was dominant the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) said it was nearly as infectious as chicken pox. And the data suggests Omicron variant is twice as infectious. It could be the most contagious pathogen on the planet, maybe even (in) the history of the planet."

"So this is going to eventually affect every human being on the Earth, and question is whether we can live with it."

(Pic: A covid-19 pop-up testing site in Manhattan, New York City; Credit: Reuters)

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