Peter Wells in New York
The US reported more than 1,000 coronavirus deaths for the first time in a week on Wednesday, while hospitalisations reached their highest level in nearly three weeks.
The national death toll rose by 1,061, according to Covid Tracking Project data on Wednesday, up from an increase of 739 on Tuesday and compared with an increase a week ago of 1,157.
Florida (175), California (152) and Texas (107) were the only three states to each have more than 100 new fatalities, with the former two reporting their biggest increases in one and two weeks, respectively. Wisconsin (27) was the only state to report a record one-day increase in deaths.
The number of patients currently in US hospitals with coronavirus rose to 30,876 from 30,391 on Tuesday and to the highest level since September 11, according to Covid Tracking Project data.
Illinois (97), Texas (93) and Kansas (82) had the largest one-day increases in hospitalisations. That helped to more than offset the biggest decreases, which were in Florida (-77), Virginia (-50) and Kentucky (-48).
States reported 44,391 cases on Wednesday, up from 36,947 on Tuesday. It was the first time in four days that infections rose by more than 40,000 and compared with 38,567 on Wednesday last week.
Texas (5,335) and California (3,200) reported the largest increases, which were their biggest daily jumps in weeks. Wisconsin (2,459) and Illinois (2,273) were the only other states with more than 2,000 new cases.
Montana (347) was the only state to report a record one-day jump in infections.