COVID-19 cases skyrocket in US

The United States has broken the global record for daily coronavirus cases for the third time in one week.

Seventeen out of the 50 states reported record one-day increases on Thursday, according to a Reuters tally.

The overall total is estimated to be between nearly 105,000 and 116,000 new cases.

Data compiled by COVID Exit Strategy - a nonpartisan group of public health and crisis experts - has classed the vast majority of states as having "uncontrolled spread".

It lists the 14-day trend of COVID-19 in the US as increasing by 46 per cent, with a rise of 203 per cent in Maine, and "elevated" totals in Michigan and Rhode Island of 79 per cent.

There were 10,000 new cases reported in Illinois alone.

Colorado, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Utah and Wisconsin were among the states to report daily case records on Thursday.

RELATED: Follow our live US election coverage

According to nationwide data from the volunteer-run COVID Tracking Project, there were more than 116,000 cases recorded on Thursday. The estimate from Johns Hopkins University was slightly more conservative - at least 114,876.

As the country waits for a result from the presidential election, neither outcome looks promising for rapid action on the coronavirus crisis.

Donald Trump has told voters the US is "rounding the turn" and labelled Dr Anthony Fauci - an infectious disease expert and White House coronavirus task force adviser - "a disaster".

"We're in for a lot of hurt," Dr Fauci told The Washington Post earlier this week.

"It's not a good situation. All the stars are aligned in the wrong place as you go into the fall and winter season, with people congregating at home indoors. You could not possibly be positioned more poorly."

If Joe Biden wins, the presidential inauguration is not until January 20 next year.

Ahead of the election, he claimed Mr Trump "just wants us to grow numb to the horrors of the death toll and the pain".

He and running mate Kamala Harris have circulated a seven-point plan to "beat COVID-19 and get our country back on track" including a "pandemic board" to oversee more testing.

Mr Biden has pledged to rejoin the World Health Organisation on his first day as President.

'SHARE A COMMON ENEMY'

Ahead of the election, Republican Governor of Ohio Mike DeWine pleaded in an open letter this week for unity "and a renewed commitment to fighting the coronavirus".

"Today and for some time to come we also share a common enemy, one that cares not whether we vote for Donald Trump or Joe Biden, an enemy that is relentless and now clearly on the march," he said.

"This enemy has invaded our nation."

In a private memo to White House officials this week, the Trump administration's coronavirus response co-ordinator Dr Deborah L. Birx called for further action.

"We are entering the most concerning and most deadly phase of this pandemic," she wrote, The New York Times reported.

"This is not about lockdowns. It hasn't been about lockdowns since March or April. It's about an aggressive balanced approach that is not being implemented."

Thursday was the second consecutive day of more than 100,000 new coronavirus infections in the US, after the record was first surpassed with 100,233 new cases on October 30.
Experts warned of the six-digit totals only weeks ago.

"We easily will hit six-figure numbers of the number of cases," Michael Osterholm, director of the Centre for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, told CNN in late October.

"And the deaths are going to go up precipitously in the next three to four weeks, following usually new cases by about two to three weeks," he said.

There have been almost a quarter of a million COVID-19 deaths recorded in the US since the pandemic began.

Originally published as COVID-19 cases skyrocket in US