USA TODAY One third of US counties set case records, other developments

Just 10 days in 2022, more than a third of U.S. counties have set COVID-19 case records, a USA TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows.

So far this year, about 1,350 counties reported their highest weekly counts of cases since the pandemic began.

The analysis suggests every county in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey broke a record. Of New York's 62 counties, only one didn't set a record — Tompkins County peaked in mid-December, after an outbreak at Cornell University. Meanwhile, every county in Hawaii set a record this year except for Kalawao County, a community with just 82 reported residents.

The national daily average of COVID-19 cases increased to about 709,000 with Sunday's report of about 307,000 cases, which was far lower than recent days. The country is now reporting about 8.2 cases per second.

The world has been setting records for two weeks now and is averaging 28 reported cases per second, and the surging number of cases is burdening hospitals.

Meanwhile, Americans are struggling to get tested. At-home kits can be hard to come by, the Federal Trade Commission has warned scammers are trying to profit off fake rapid tests, and some regions are limiting who can use community testing sites.

►A trio of health experts say it's time for public and political leaders to start talking about what levels of sickness, hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 we would accept, according to a new commentary in the scientific journal JAMA. Emergency actions could be triggered when cases exceed a formal risk threshold, and health systems could use it to plan for normal and surge capacity.  ...