The number of new daily coronavirus cases hit records in several US states on Saturday as the national total reached 2.5m, prompting President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign to postpone events next week.

Florida’s cases increased by 9,636 to 132,545, the state’s health department said Saturday. The state, the third-largest in the US, reported 8,942 new cases on Friday. South Carolina and Nevada also reported record numbers of new Covid-19 cases on Saturday. More than 125,000 people have now died of Covid-19 in the US, according to Johns Hopkins University.

More than a dozen states in the south and west have experienced a new wave of coronavirus cases, raising the prospect that many of the regions that reopened their economies will have to reverse the measures. As a result, Mr Trump’s campaign has postponed events in Arizona and Florida that vice-president Mike Pence was scheduled to attend next week.