More than 900 US virus deaths in past 24 hours: tracker

The coronavirus pandemic killed 922 people in the United States in the past 24 hours, according to figures released Friday by Johns Hopkins University.

The latest deaths bring the total in the United States to 109,042, and there have been more than 1.89 million cases, according to a real-time tally maintained by the Baltimore-based university at 8:30 pm (0030 GMT Saturday).

Some 491,000 people have recovered from the disease.

The United States has suffered by far the largest number of both COVID-19 deaths and infections.

On a per capita basis, however, several European countries—including France, Italy and Spain—have a higher death toll.

President Donald Trump said earlier Friday that the United States was "largely through" the pandemic and renewed his call on governors to ease lockdown measures in their states.

While the United States was suffering around 3,000 deaths a day in mid-April, that number has declined to around 1,000 deaths and 20,000 new cases a day at present.

According to researchers at the University of Massachusetts, which takes an average forecast from nine different models, the coronavirus death toll will be around 127,000 by June 27.

Even though the spread of the disease has slowed, health care professionals worry that mass demonstrations against police brutality and racism taking place in cities across the US may lead to a new surge in infections in the coming weeks.

© 2020 AFP