US death toll approaches 84,000 as confirmed cases rise to nearly 1.5m
Mamta Badkar in New York
Nearly 1.5m people have now tested positive for coronavirus in the US, as testing in the country jumps to more than 400,000 a day. While the number of US deaths attributed to coronavirus neared 84,000 even the nation recorded one of its lowest daily death tolls in the past six weeks.
A further 839 people died over the past 24 hours taking the total number of fatalities since the start of the pandemic to 83,854, according to the Covid Tracking Project. The organisation noted that “Sundays and Mondays tend to show lower death numbers” but added “this is one of the lowest totals in the last 6 weeks”.
By comparison, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put the national death toll at 88,709, a figure that includes possible deaths.
The number of new positive cases slowed even as the number of daily tests conducted climbed to the highest since the pandemic began. There were 21,069 confirmed cases nationwide, bringing the total to nearly 1.48m, according to the Covid Tracking Project, while 422,000 new tests were conducted over the past day — partly driven by California, which carried out 56,000 tests.
The death toll in New York, which has been the epicentre of the US outbreak, climbed by 141 over the past 24 hours to 22,619, according to the organisation. Earlier in the day, New York governor Andrew Cuomo reported a daily death toll of 139 as he took a Covid-19 test during his press briefing and urged New Yorkers to get tested as well.
Source: Economy - ft.com
