The US now has now overtaken Italy to have the highest death toll from Covid-19 in the world.
According to the latest figures, compiled by Johns Hopkins University, more than 20,000 people in the US have now died from coronavirus.
The grim milestone comes shortly after the US became the first nation to record more than 2,000 virus deaths in a single day.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on April 11 the state’s death toll appeared to be stabilizing.
Announcing a 24-hour figure of 783 new deaths, Governor Cuomo noted the last several days had seen around the same number.
He said: “That is not an all-time high, and you can see that the number is somewhat stabilizing but it is stabilizing at a horrific rate.
“These are just incredible numbers depicting incredible loss and pain.”
New York has become the epicenter of the outbreak in the US, recording more than 180,000 of the country’s nearly 530,000 cases.
As of April 11, every single US state has declared a disaster in response to the outbreak.
More than 100,000 have now died with the new virus around the world since the pandemic broke out in China in December.
Coronavirus: US Becomes First Country to Record Over 2,000 Deaths In A Single Day
Coronavirus: US Unemployment Rate Surges for Third Week
According to the Johns Hopkins tally, as of April 12, Italy reported 19,468 deaths while the US had 20,608.
There are now at least 529,951 confirmed cases of Covid-19 across the US.
Dr. Anthony Fauci has said the US is “starting to see the leveling off and coming down” of cases and deaths but says mitigation efforts such as social distancing should not be pulled back yet.
Federal social distancing recommendations, issued by President Donald Trump, are currently in place until April 30.
President Trump is facing twin pressures from the outbreak: with at least 16 million jobs lost in recent weeks as virus restrictions cripple the US economy.
