Washington, July 25 (RHC)-- The U.S. recorded more than 1,000 deaths from COVID-19 for the fourth straight day on Friday but a top White House advisor on the pandemic said she saw signs that the worst could be past in hard-hit southern and western states.

At least 1,019 fatalities due to COVID-19 were confirmed nationwide on Friday, following 1,140 on Thursday, 1,135 on Wednesday and 1,141 on Tuesday.  Total cases across the U.S. rose by at least 70,000 to over 4.1 million, according to a tally by the Johns Hopkins University.

The numbers have been driven in large part by a surge in infections in Arizona, California, Florida, Texas and California.  "We're already starting to see some plateauing in these critically four states that have really suffered under the last four weeks, so Texas, California, Arizona and Florida, those major metros and throughout their counties," Dr Deborah Birx told NBC news in an interview.