Omicron causes US deaths at a higher rate than the delta wave of fall.

 
A patient is asked to take an swab of their nose for the COVID-19 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test, while a person is watching during the FEMA's COVID-19 test at a drive-through site on Pima Community College West Campus in Tucson, Ariz. on Monday, January. 24 2022. Omicron is the highly infectious coronavirus strain that has been sweeping across the nation, is driving to keep the American death toll up from in the last delta wave which is likely to increase for days , or even weeks. Credit: Rebecca Sasnett/Arizona Daily Star via AP

Omicron is the highly infectious coronavirus variant that is sweeping the United States, is pushing every day's American death toll up from in the last delta wave and is expected to increase for days , or even weeks.

The seven-day average for new COVID-19 deaths per day across the U.S. has been climbing from mid-November to 2,267 on Thursday , and surpassing the peak of 2,100 in September where delta was the predominant variant.

It is believed that omicron could be the main cause of disease that is circulating across the country. Even though it is a less serious illness for the majority of people, the fact that it's more easily transmitted means that there are more people who are sick and dying.

"Omicron will push us over a million deaths," said Andrew Noymer, a public health professor at the University of California, Irvine. "That will cause a lot of soul searching. There will be a lot of discussion about what we could have done differently, how many of the deaths were preventable."

The daily average death toll is currently at the same amount as month, in February when the nation was beginning to fall off its record-breaking 3,300 per day.

A greater number of Americans are taking precautionary steps to protect themselves from the virus than they did prior to the omicron outbreak as per an survey conducted by AP-NORC in the week of. Many people, exhausted from the crisis are returning to a normal level, hoping that prior vaccinations or previous infections will help protect the virus.