US COVID-19 death toll tops 42,000; cases surpass 7,80,000

The number of confirmed novel coronavirus cases in the United States has surpassed 7,80,000, with over42,000 deaths.

According to Johns Hopkins University, there are 7,83,290 COVID-19 cases in the United States, while the death toll stands at 42,094.

A total of 72,015 people have recovered.

New York alone has confirmed 2,47,512 cases of the novel coronavirus, while the total number of fatalities has climbed to 14,347 in the state. Out of these, 1,36,806 were registered in New York City, according to the Department of Health's COVID-19 Tracker.

The highest number of deaths - 3,261 out of the total of 14,347 fatalities - took place in the city's borough of Brooklyn, followed by Queens with 3,221 deaths, the Bronx with 2,140 and Manhattan with 1,252.

Montana for the first time reported no new cases on Monday after processing 153 tests in the past 24 hours, according to the state's website.

Deaths also have slowed in recent days, rising by about 1,500 so far on Monday compared with over 2,000 a day for most of last week. The United States had a record 2,806 deaths in a single day on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, protestors gathered in state capitals to demand an early end to the lockdowns, while officials pleaded for patience until more testing becomes available.

Stay-at-home measures, which experts say are essential to slow the spread of the respiratory virus, have ground the economy to a standstill and forced more than 22 million people to apply for unemployment benefits in the last month.

Many of the protestors demanding an end to mandatory lockdowns expressed cynicism toward health experts and skepticism about the actual scale of the pandemic, accusing officials of overreaching and taking actions that had caused more harm than the virus itself.

Health experts and lawmakers on the front lines of the battle to curb the pandemic have warned that the country could face a second and even deadlier wave of infections if the lockdowns end prematurely.

The worldwide death toll from COVID-19 pandemic rose to 1,65,216 on Monday, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP.

More than 24,03,410 declared cases have been registered in 193 countries and territories since the epidemic first emerged in China in December. Of these cases, at least 5,37,700 are now considered recovered.

(with inputs from agencies)