United States daily virus toll below 1,000 for 7 days in row

WASHINGTON: The United States has recorded 840 deaths from the new coronavirus in the past 24 hours, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The US remains the most affected in the world by the pandemic in absolute terms, with more than 117,000 deaths overall and more than 2.1 million cases diagnosed.

Despite the encouraging drop in deaths, the number of new infections has plateaued around 20,000 a day, as infection rates wax and wane around the country.

The epidemic has moved from New York previously the country’s epicenter and the northeast to a wideband covering the south and west.

More than a dozen states are recording their highest number of new COVID-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic.

Among them is Oklahoma, where President Donald Trump is pushing ahead with plans to hold a large election rally with tens of thousands of people next weekend, despite fears it could help spread the virus.

Around the world, the coronavirus pandemic on Thursday killed more than 451,383 people and infected over 8,405,632.

According to the latest data, 4,415,785 patients have recovered from the pandemic so far.  Over 553,301 people have infected while 7,478 people died of the virus in Russia. The country has the third-highest number of recorded infections in the world.