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A top health official in Tulsa, Oklahoma says U.S. President Donald Trump's campaign rally there likely helped cause a spike in cases of COVID-19 in the city.

On Wednesday (July 8) the health director for the city - Dr. Bruce Dart - was asked by reporters if the Trump event on the 20th of June could be responsible for a surge in case numbers over the past few days.

"We've had questions of, 'are we starting to see things connected to the Trump rally, or other protests... so as I said, past two days, we've seen almost 500 new cases, and we had several large events just over two weeks ago, which is about right, so I guess we just connect the dots."

Dart cautioned that several more days of results would be needed to determine if the spike represented a trend.

White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said she had not seen data to support Dart's conclusions.

Meanwhile Trump's campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said quote, "All attendees had their temperature checked, everyone was provided a mask, and there was plenty of hand sanitizer available for all. It's obvious that the media's concern about large gatherings begins and ends with Trump rallies."R