The United States has set a third straight daily record for new Covid-19 infections, notching more than 127,000 cases, John Hopkins University reported Friday.

And the death toll as of 8:30 pm (0130 GMT) over the past 24 hours was 1,149, the Baltimore-based university said.

The outbreak has been surging for weeks across the country, with the Midwest worst-hit even as the number of new diagnoses were approaching springtime levels in the south, northeast and west.

While deaths remain far lower than the peak in spring, Friday was also the fourth day in a row that fatalities were above 1,000. The last time people were dying of Covid-19  at that rate in the US was early September.

As of Friday evening, the US -- the worst hit country in the world in terms of deaths and total cases -- had more than 236,000 coronavirus-related fatalities and 9.7 million known infections.

Cases are expected to increase as the country moves into colder weather and people switch to socializing primarily indoors, prime conditions for passing the virus from person to person.

Colder, drier weather might also play a role in creating favorable conditions for the virus to linger in air and on surfaces.

Reasons that deaths are down from their peak include the fact that as cases are more spread out geographically than they were at the start of the US epidemic, hospitals are better able to cope with the caseload.