US Reports Highest Daily Coronavirus Death Toll

By Staff, Agencies

The United States reported 1,169 COVID-19 fatalities in the past 24 hours on Thursday, according to an online tracker by Johns Hopkins University.

The number represents the new highest day-to-day death toll globally ever since the onset of the pandemic; previously, Italy accounted for that, with its 969 fatalities reported on March 27.

The US toll reflected figures reported by the university between 8:30 pm Wednesday and the same time Thursday, with the latest figures putting the total toll for the US at 6,088 on Friday.

The number of confirmed infections in the country is now approaching 250,000 – the highest infections total globally. The White House recently estimated that the disease could kill up to 240,000 Americans.

The US accounts for about a quarter of the global infections, which currently total 1,015,877.

Over 53,000 deaths have been reported globally by this moment, with Italy and Spain both reporting over 10,000 deaths.

Despite more than half the planet living in some form of lockdown, the virus is continuing to spread rapidly, and to claim lives at an alarming pace, with the US, Spain and Britain all seeing their worst days yet.

The economic cost of the pandemic is getting starker by the day, with new figures showing that an extra 6.65 million Americans signed on for unemployment benefit last week, taking to 10 million the number of people who lost their jobs in the last two weeks of March.