With 1,321 COVID-19 deaths between Thursday and Friday, the US has recorded the highest number of people ever to die of the disease in a single day.

During the period, the total US death toll increased from 6,071 to 7,392, according to Worldmeters.com, which tracks the pandemic statistics, while the number of confirmed cases rose from 2,44,877 to 2,77,161, an increase of 32,284.

During the same period globally the total number of confirmed cases rose by 83,247 from 1,015 to 1,098, and deaths increased by 5,979 from 53,172 to 59,151.

According to France 24, the previous record for the most COVID-19 deaths was Italy’s, where 969 people had died of the disease on March 27.

New York State had the highest number of COVID-19 cases recording a total of 1,03,476 cases on Friday, an increase of 10,423 from Thursday, according to Worldmeters. Total deaths increased by 680 to 3,218, which is almost half the number of mortalities in the US.

Italy, which has recorded the highest number of total deaths in the pandemic, saw the toll increase by 766 to 14,681 on Friday, while Spain recorded an increase of 850 to 11,198, according to Worldmeters.

China, where the pandemic began and is now ebbing, reported a total of only 3,322 deaths from COVID-19 on Friday, showing an increase of only 4.