Washington, Oct 18 (IANS): The US, currently the worst-hit country by the Covid-19 pandemic, has recorded more than 70,000 new single day coronavirus cases, the highest daily spike since July, according to a report.

The figure revealed by The New York Times Covid-19 database has suggested that the fall and winter wave, earlier predicted by doctors and public health experts, has already hit the country, reports The Hill news website.

According to the database, the states of Wyoming, Minnesota, Wisconsin, West Virginia, North Dakota, Indiana, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado reached their single-day records on Friday, while Indiana and Ohio topped their previous highs on Saturday.

The latest single-day spike has increased the country's overall Covid-19 caseload to 8,106,384, while the death toll reached 219,286 with more than 900 new fatalities.

The New York Times database said that the nationwide seven-day average had also increased by nearly 8,000 daily new cases since October 7.

According to health experts, there have been two Covid-19 "surges" in the US, The Hill news website reported.

The first surge hit the northeast in the spring, and the second hit the south over the summer, peaking at about 73,000 cases per day in July.

"We're actually almost already back at the peak that we saw nationally in the summer," Michael Mina, assistant professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chain School of Public Health, said.

"We're almost back at that same level and I don't believe that we're anywhere close to that rise abating."

Addressing a webinar on Friday, Anthony Fauci, America's top infectious diseases expert, said: "You can't enter into the cooler months of the fall and the cold months of the winter with a high community infection baseline.

"We're going to start doing a lot of things indoors, rather than outdoors, and that's when you have to be particularly careful about the spread of a respiratory borne disease."