Roundup: U.S. COVID-19 cases approach 50 mln as Omicron hits more states

NEW YORK, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- The total number of reported COVID-19 cases in the United States is to hit 50 million, while the Omicron variant had been found in 19 U.S. states as of Monday, five days after the first known case in the country was reported in California, a sign of its potentially heightened transmissibility.

Johns Hopkins University tallied the country's coronavirus cases as nearly 49.3 million as