US sets daily record for coronavirus cases

The U.S. on Thursday broke its record for most new coronavirus cases reported in a day as concerns over a second wave of the pandemic continue to mount.

As numbers spike across the South, 40,401 new cases were reported on Thursday, according to a Johns Hopkins database, beating the previous record-setting number in April by more than 3,000.

Missouri, Nevada, Alabama and Texas all posted record daily highs, according to tallies from The Washington Post.

The Lone Star State, in particular, reported 5,996 new cases on Thursday, according to the Post, eclipsing the record it set on Wednesday. The state’s rolling average — 4,581 — was not only a record, but 340 percent more than it was on Memorial Day, according to the Post.

The fast rise in cases in Texas led to Gov. Greg Abbott (R) announcing a pause of reopenings on Thursday as hospitals began to fill, particularly in hard-hit metropolitan areas.

These numbers come as CDC Director Robert Redfield on Thursday said that the number of Americans actually infected by the virus could actually be 10 times greater than what is actually being reported.

“This virus causes so much asymptomatic infection,” Redfield said. “We probably recognized about 10 percent of the outbreak.”

“This outbreak is not over. This pandemic is not over. The most powerful tool that we have, powerful weapon, is social distancing,” Redfield added. “We have responsibility to practice the social mitigation strategies to protect the vulnerable, to protect the elderly.”

While the numbers are spiking in some states, there are some areas that are showing a decrease in the number of cases after being hit hard early in the spread.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said Thursday that his state was treating fewer than 1,000 COVID-19 patients in hospitals, the first time since mid-March that the number had dipped below 1,000.

Hospitalizations are declining in Connecticut; Washington, D.C.; Illinois; Indiana; Maryland; Massachusetts; New Hampshire; New Jersey; Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, as well.

More than 2.4 million people in the U.S. have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the Johns Hopkins data.