US is facing a significant rise on the current death toll

In a national forecast, published on Thursday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) predicted that within the next four weeks, deaths could climb as high as 282,000.  

Government health officials have warned that tens of thousands of Americans will die in the coming weeks as coronavirus continued to surge across the country, shattering more daily records.

On the same day, California became the second US state to top 1m cases. This followed a day after Texas also reached the landmark figure.

Hospitalisations also reached a new record high on Thursday, according to the Covid Tracking Project, with 67,000 people in hospital with the virus. It also reported that cases are rising faster than at any other point in the pandemic, with a 71% increase in the 7-day average compared to two weeks before.

The tracker also found that one in every 378 US residents tested positive for Covid-19 this week. And in North and South Dakota, among the worst affected states, one in under 100 people have tested positive.

States warned of a desperate shortage of hospital beds in the midwest amid a huge surge in the region.