COVID-19: US registers record one-day toll of 2,129; total crosses 25,000

PTI, Apr 15, 2020, 9:11 AM IST

Washington: The COVID-19 death toll in the United States crossed 25,000 on Tuesday with the country witnessing the highest single-day tally of 2,129.

As of Tuesday, more than 6,05,000 Americans had tested positive for the novel coronavirus — more than the other top three countries taken together — according to Johns Hopkins University.

A record number of 2,129 of Americans died in one single day, the previous highest being 2,074 on April 10. New York has become the epicentre of the country’s outbreak with 2,03,020 confirmed cases and 10,842 deaths so far.

In total, 25,981 Americans have died due to the deadly virus, Johns Hopkins University said.

“The United States is continuing to make substantial progress in our war against the virus. We grieve at every precious life that has been lost to the invisible enemy, but through the darkness, we can see the rays of light, US President Donald Trump told reporters during his daily White House news conference on the pandemic.

“We see that tunnel, and at the end of that tunnel, we see light. We are starting to see it more than ever before. We have held our numbers, everything we have done we have been very, very strong on it and very powerful on it, he said.

Trump said the United States has far more ICU beds per capita than any other nation. We have 34.7 ICU beds per 100,000 people, which is the best there is compared with roughly 12.5 beds per 100,000 in Italy, 11.6 beds in France, 9.7 beds in Spain, he said.

There are more than 16,000 ventilators at hospitals and other healthcare facilities that are not in use at this moment, he said referring to the steps he has taken to fight coronavirus in the country.

The US Food and Drug Administration, he said, has now authorized the first test developed by researchers from Rutgers University that can use saliva from patients.

It is the first one. These test can be self-administered by patients in healthcare settings, which will reduce exposure for medical workers and save personal protective equipment. Rutgers will begin processing 10,000 test daily, he added.