The United States recorded nearly 1,200 additional deaths from the new coronavirus between Wednesday and Thursday evening, according to the Johns Hopkins University count, which is the worst 24-hour record ever recorded in a country. With 1,169 deaths counted between 8:30 p.m. local time Wednesday and the same time Thursday, according to continuously updated university figures, the total number of deaths since the start of the pandemic in the United States is now 5,926.
The previous record observed in Italy
The previous record for the number of deaths from the new coronavirus in 24 hours in a country was observed on March 27 in Italy (969 deaths). The total number of deaths is always higher in Italy (13,915) and Spain (10,003) than in the United States.
Between Wednesday and Thursday, the United States also identified more than 30,000 additional Covid-19 cases, bringing the total number of officially declared cases in the country to more than 243,000, according to Johns Hopkins University.
New York, epicenter of the epidemic
The United States is by far the country with the highest number of confirmed cases, with a quarter of the cases recorded worldwide.
The epicenter of the American epidemic is located in New York. The city alone has registered more than 1,500 deaths and is approaching 50,000 positive cases, according to figures released late Thursday by city health officials.
Over 1.3 million tests performed
More than 1.3 million Covid-19 tests have been performed in the country, Vice President Mike Pence said on Thursday at the White House Crisis Cell daily press conference on the new coronavirus. "We now run over 100,000 tests a day," added President Donald Trump, "which is more than any country in the world," both in absolute numbers and in proportion to the population of the United States ( about 330 million people), he said.
According to White House projections, the Covid-19 is expected to kill 100,000 to 240,000 people in the United States.