As Omicron managed to surge past other variants to become the dominant strain of SARS-CoV-2, the number of Covid-19 cases recorded worldwide crossed the grim milestone of 3.6 million (3,611,403) on Thursday (January 20), according to figures published by the Worldometer.

The United States topped the list of countries that recorded the highest number of daily coronavirus cases on Thursday with a figure that stood over 692,000.

France and India followed with more than 425,000 and 342,000 infections, respectively.

More than 9,000 deaths reported across the world were attributed to the virus. 

Meanwhile, an AFP tally showed on Thursday that the world has registered a record-high average of more than 3 million coronavirus cases a day between January 13 and 19, fuelled by the Omicron variant.

The figure has increased more than five-fold since the highly transmissible strain was detected in South Africa and Botswana in late November 2021.

Before Omicron emerged, the previous record for average global daily infections was around 800,000 in late April 2021.

Current infection levels are around 440% higher than the daily average for the week ending November 24, 2021, when South Africa reported Omicron to the World Health Organization.

The world recorded an average of 7,522 COVID-related deaths a day between January 13 and 19, an 11% rise on the previous week although Omicron has so far seemed to cause less serious illness than the previously dominant Delta variant.

-with inputs from agencies