Argentina sees record number of daily COVID-19 cases

BUENOS AIRES, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- Argentina on Friday again saw a record number of daily cases of COVID-19, detecting 139,853 new infections in 24 hours, according to the Ministry of Health.

The daily figure raised the country's total to 6,932,972 cases since the onset of the pandemic, while 96 more deaths in the past 24 hours brought the death toll to 117,901.

Tuesday had seen a new record of daily cases, with 134,439 infections, as the country experiences its third wave of outbreaks driven by the Omicron variant.

In intensive care units, 2,268 patients were hospitalized, with bed occupancy of 41.7 percent nationwide and 41.4 percent in Greater Buenos Aires.

Health Minister Carla Vizzotti said the country last week set a "vaccination record with 2.6 million doses applied" against COVID-19.

"We are working to speed up all the vaccines," she said.