Fauci clashes with Rand Paul at Senate hearing as daily Covid cases soar

The US recorded a record number of hospitalisations due to Covid-19, the Biden administration said, as daily infections soared to more than 1.35m. Nonetheless, politics dominated a Senate hearing on the pandemic on Tuesday, as Republicans attempted to use the disease for political gain.

Paul, who has repeatedly used public health hearings for political grandstanding and launching personal attacks on Fauci, variously accused the immunologist of working to smear scientists and being responsible for school closures, while reiterating rightwing theories about the origin of Covid-19.

He also described the arrest in Iowa in December of a man who police said planned to kill Fauci and other powerful figures and was carrying an assault rifle.

There were 145,982 people hospitalised with coronavirus in the US on Monday, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services. Reuters reported that the previous high was 132,051, set in January 2021.

According to Reuters there were 1.35m new Covid infections on Monday, also a record. Measures vary and observers point out that many home tests are not officially logged. But NBC News reported at least 1,343,167 new infections.

The highly contagious Omicron variant has seen hospitalisations double in three weeks. The seven-day average for new cases has tripled in two weeks to more than 700,000 a day.

Large numbers of Covid cases tend to be reported on Mondays due to many states not reporting over the weekend, but the 1.35m total reported this week comfortably outstripped the previous record of 1.03m, recorded on Monday 3 January.