The US recorded a one-day total of 34,700 new COVID-19 cases, just short of the nation's late-April peak of 36,400, according to the count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
While new cases have been declining steadily in early US hot spots such as New York and New Jersey, several other states set single-day case records this week, including Arizona, California, Mississippi, Nevada and Texas.
Florida's single-day count of new confirmed cases surged yesterday to 5,500, a 25 per cent jump from the record set last week and triple the level from just two weeks ago.
In Arizona, cases will probably exceed statewide hospital bed capacity within the next several weeks if the trend continues, said Dr Joseph Gerald, a University of Arizona public health policy professor.
In a sign of the shift in the outbreak, New York, Connecticut and New Jersey announced they will require visitors from states with high coronavirus infection rates to quarantine themselves for 14 days.
