Even as the Omicron variant sweeps around the world, public health officials have noted that, in most cases, the number of Covid patients in hospitals remains significantly lower than during previous pandemic surges.

That's not the case in the US, however, where the number of patients with the coronavirus currently in hospital has reached record numbers.

According to data from the Department of Health and Human Services, 145,982 people were in hospital with the virus on 11 January, surpassing a previous record set in January 2021.

Let's begin with this chart comparing how many people in several countries have been in hospital with Covid-19 during the pandemic.

It's adjusted to account for population size and represents a ratio of the number of infected hospital patients per million inhabitants.

The various peaks represent times in which each nation was hit by a new Covid wave, including the initial outbreak and influx of hospital patients, last winter's surge or the summer spike caused by the Delta variant.

The green line, for example, shows how hard Italy was hit at both the beginning of the pandemic and again last year, reaching a high of 638 infected patients per million inhabitants on 23 November, 2020.

For Italy, France, and the UK, we see that the number of patients in hospital with Covid remains much lower than in previous waves.

In the UK, 291 patients with coronavirus per million were in hospital on 10 January.

In the US, on the other hand, 411 US Covid-19 patients per million people were in hospital as of 9 January - surpassing a previous peak of 400 per million set on 14 January 2021.

Similarly, the data shows that in Canada, 206 people were in hospital per million as of 11 January, compared to previous peaks of 118 in April and 128 in January 2021.

In the US, UK and Canada, newly admitted patients are tested for Covid regardless of what brought them to a hospital.

In South Africa - where the Omicron variant was first detected in November - researchers found that those infected with Omicron are less likely to be sent to hospital and more likely to recover quickly.

While up-to-date data regarding the rate of Covid patients in hospital per capita is not available, many South African hospitals reported that the number was significantly less than during previous surges.

The Steve Biko Academic Hospital in the City of Tshwane, for example, reported to the International Journal of Infectious Diseases that the number of infected patients was about half of that recorded before mid-November.

Doctors also warn that the high level of hospital admissions in the US and Canada may be due to the Delta variant being more prevalent in many areas.

Dr Monica Gandhi, an infectious diseases physician and professor at the University of California San Francisco, said that while she believes Delta patients form a significant portion of Covid-19 hospital admissions in the US, the true figure is hard to determine.

In her own hospital, Dr Gandhi added, some patients "are sicker and some are less sick, and that feels very much like Delta and Omicron are both there".

In many countries, researchers believe that the Omicron variant has begun to subside, possibly signalling the end of the increase in hospital patients with Covid.

A computer model from researchers at the University of Washington, for example, has projected that the number of daily cases in the US will reach a high of 1.2 million by 19 January.