The US is now averaging 198,404 new Covid-19 cases each day, according to Sunday data from Johns Hopkins University. That's 47% higher than a week ago and the highest such number since January 19.

"I think we're going to see half a million cases a day -- easy -- sometime over the next week to 10 days," CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner told CNN on Sunday.

About 71,000 Americans were hospitalized with Covid-19 as of Sunday, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services.

And an average of 1,408 Americans died from Covid-19 each day during the week ending Sunday, according to Johns Hopkins. That's a 17% increase from the prior week.

With the highly contagious Omicron variant, "We're certainly going to continue to see a surge (in cases) for a while," Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN on Monday.

Looking ahead to New Year's Eve on Friday, small gatherings of fully vaccinated people will be safe, Fauci said. But he advised people to avoid large parties where they don't know the vaccination status of all guests.

"When you are talking about a New Year's Eve party where you have 30, 40, 50 people celebrating, you do not know the status of the vaccination, I would recommend strongly: Stay away from that this year," said Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

"There will be other years to do that. But not this year."