COVID-19 cases are surging in the U.S. and Europe in record numbers due to omicron, the latest variant first recorded a month ago.

In the U.S., where omicron has become the dominant strain, daily average infections recorded just under 169-thousand in the past week, higher than 165-thousand in early September during the peak of the delta wave.

In the UK, daily infections surpassed an all-time-high of 122-thousand on Friday.

New cases also hit record highs in Italy and Spain on Friday, prompting tighter mask mandates.

A research team at the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation predicts there could be 140 million infections in the U.S. and three billion in the rest of the world in January and February due to omicron's high transmissibility.