The United States recorded 122,000 new cases of COVID-19 Friday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. It’s the highest daily number of confirmed cases the country has ever registered and the third day in a row of more than 100,000 cases in a day. More than 1,000 Americans died from the virus Friday as well, the fourth straight day of such a high death toll. The highly contagious coronavirus has surged across the country in recent weeks, with transmission rates reaching the same deadly heights as at the beginning of the pandemic. COVID-19 has infected more than 9.7 million Americans and killed 236,000, according to Johns Hopkins.