The US recorded its highest ever number of daily COVID-19 infections, with more than 65,000 in a day

• The number of new coronavirus infections recorded in the US reached 65,551 on Thursday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
• It's the highest single day number of new cases yet recorded, breaking the previous record that was set on Tuesday.
• The New York Times also recorded a record number in new infections on Thursday, reporting 59,880 new cases on Thursday via different methodology.
• The increase is being driven by infections spiking in states in the South and West, with Texas and Florida among those most severely affected.

The US on Thursday recorded its highest ever number of new coronavirus infections, as the disease continues to sweep the country.

According to data from Johns Hopkins University, 65,551 new cases were recorded on Thursday, the highest single day tally yet recorded.

The previous daily record for new cases was set only two days earlier on Tuesday, when 60,200 new cases were recorded.

Data compiled by the New York Times told the same story, with 59,880 new cases recorded on Thursday, a new single day record by its methodology.

It is the sixth time in 10 days that the record for daily new infections has been broken, according to the data.

The climbing figures are being driven mainly by high infection rates in the south and west, according to the Times, with Alabama, Idaho, Missouri, Montana, Oregon and Texas all recording single-day records on Thursday.

The US has the most recorded cases of the disease in the world, with 3.1 million cases and 133.195 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins.

The southern and western states currently worst affected by the pandemic were among the first to lift restrictions to curb the spread of the disease.

Since then, several have been forced to reintroduce measures including shuttering businesses and mandating the wearing of masks as infections spike.

President Donald Trump has asserted that the number of infections being recorded in the US is the result of the increasing number of people being tested.

The president's own public health officials say this is false, and that the increasing percentage of people being tested shows that the infection is spreading in the real world, not decreasing.

"There is no question that the more testing you get, the more you will uncover – but we do believe this is a real increase in cases, because the percent positivists are going up," Assistant Health Secretary Brett Giroir told Congress last week.