The United States reported a third straight daily record for new coronavirus cases on Friday, according to Johns Hopkins University.

More than 127,000 infections were reported in 24 hours, as well as 1,149 deaths.

The news comes as officials announced that White House chief of staff Mark Meadows had also tested positive for the virus.

He is the latest Trump administration official to contract the disease.

The US is the worst affected nation in the world by Covid-19, with more than 9.7 million confirmed cases and a death toll of more than 230,000.

It was not immediately clear how Mr Meadows - who has often appeared at public events without a face mask - was infected.

According to the New York Times, he first tested positive on Wednesday. Trump election campaign adviser Nick Trainer also has the virus, the paper said.

Mr Meadows travelled with the president on the final days of campaigning and was at an election night party attended by dozens of Trump supporters at the White House.

The country’s coronavirus outbreak was a key policy battleground in the run-up to the 3 November election, and contributed to a surge in postal and early in-person voting.

In late October, Mr Meadows said in an interview with CNN that the US was “not going to control the pandemic”, saying that Covid-19 could only be defeated by “mitigation areas” like vaccines and therapeutics.

President Trump and his wife Melania and son Barron all contracted and recovered from Covid-19 - as did national security adviser Robert O’Brien, senior advisor Stephen Miller and White House counsellor Hope Hicks.

A ceremony at the White House on 26 September came into focus after the president contracted the virus.

More than a dozen reporters, guests and officials at the crowded Rose Garden event - where Mr Trump formally announced Amy Coney Barrett as his pick for the Supreme Court - contracted the virus.

Footage captured attendees standing close together without masks. Some shook hands, bumped fists and even hugged.

Source: BBC
-Agencies