US reports over 4,000 daily coronavirus deaths for first time

The United States has reported more than 4,000 coronavirus deaths in one day for the first time since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in December 2019, as health systems struggle to cope with the number of sick and dying patients.

A total of 4,033 people died in connection with the disease within 24 hours, according to the COVID Tracking Project.

The country has seen a total of 365,000 deaths linked to the coronavirus so far, according to data from the Johns Hopkins University, out of a population of 330 million people.

On Thursday, more than 266,000 new cases were reported, bringing the total tally to more than 21.6 million cases.

Case numbers are particularly high in the state of California, especially in Los Angeles County, where more than 20 percent test results are coming back positive.

Parts of California issued fresh lockdown orders and the governor said on Thursday that the state could run out of intensive care unit capacity within weeks.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) forecast on Thursday that 12,900 to 24,900 deaths “will likely be reported” in the week ending January 30. By that date, the CDC projected the country’s overall death toll would be in the range of 405,000 to 438,000.

No other country comes close to as many confirmed coronavirus cases in terms of absolute numbers.

In India, there are 10.3 million confirmed cases, while in Brazil, 7.9 million have been counted. Experts also assume there are a high number of unreported coronavirus cases in most countries.