10 things you need to know today: December 29, 2021

U.S. breaks daily record for COVID cases, former Senate Leader Harry Reid dies at 82, and more

Harry Reid, pictured in 2016
Harry Reid, pictured in 2016
(Image credit: Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images)

1. U.S. breaks daily record for COVID cases

The U.S. broke the record for daily coronavirus cases on Tuesday, when the seven-day average topped 267,000. The previous record was set on Jan. 11, 2021, when the seven-day average was 251,232. The daily COVID-19 death rate, however, has not risen to match, as in the time since, vaccines have become available to almost all Americans and the apparently milder Omicron variant has spread. Daily COVID-19 deaths averaged around 3,300 in mid-January but are now around 1,500. Some states have seen particularly high caseloads this week: Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia all reported their highest number of COVID-19 cases of the pandemic on Monday.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.