U.S. coronavirus cases hit new single-day record

June 26 (UPI) -- The United States registered more than 40,000 infections of COVID-19 in the previous 24 hours, according to two live trackers of the deadly and infections coronavirus, setting a new record for cases recorded in a single day.

Both Johns Hopkins University and Worldometer.info, which have been tabulating COVID-19 cases worldwide, showed Thursday that more cases were recorded in the United States in the previous 24 hours than any other day since the first cases were diagnosed in the country mid-January.

While the university posted 40,598 cases and the website had 40,184, both figures exceed their previous record highs of 36,291 and 39,099 they respectively recorded on April 24.

The U.S. Centers and Disease Control reported 37,667 cases over Wednesday, though it states April 6 had the most cases at 43,438.

The United States has been the worst affected country by the coronavirus with some 2.5 million infections and 125,000 deaths. However, its actual number of infections may be substantially higher.

Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the CDC, told reporters Thursday that more than 20 million people may have been infected in the country.

"Our best estimate right now is that for every case that's reported, there actually are 10 other infections," Redfield told reporters in a media call.