US sets another grim milestone, records over 2,500 coronavirus deaths in 24 hours

The United States on Wednesday recorded a little over 2,500 additional deaths from the novel coronavirus in 24 hours, a new record and the heaviest daily toll of any country.

A tally from Johns Hopkins showed 2,569 victims, bringing the total number of US deaths to 28,326 -- higher than any other nation.

More than 6.3 lakh Americans have tested positive for COVID-19 so far.

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To this end, US President Donald Trump said the United States had passed the peak on new coronavirus cases.

"The battle continues, but the data suggest that nationwide we have passed the peak on new cases. Hopefully, that will continue, and we will continue to make great progress," Trump told reporters at his daily White House news conference on coronavirus.

These encouraging developments, he said, has put the US in a very strong position to finalise guidelines for states on reopening the country. The new social mitigation measures, he said, would be announced Thursday.

Nine States have less than 1,000 cases and less than 30 new cases per day. Some states like California and Washington State, Oregon never really had a peak because of so much work that their populations did to decrease and keep the new cases down.

The United States has rapidly developed the most expansive and accurate testing system anywhere in the world and have completed more than 3.3 million tests.

The administration is also distributing vast amounts of medical supplies to states across the country. Through project air bridge, which has been an amazing success they have completed 44 flights, and an additional 56 like scheduled in the near future.

In total, through all channels, the federal government has developed and delivered 39.4 million N95 masks, 431 million gloves, 57 million surgical masks and 10.2 million gowns. It ordered 500 million masks and they will be coming shortly and have distributed 100 million masks, he said.

Trump said his administration is using every available authority to accelerate the development, study and develop therapies and treatments. "Ultimately, what we want to come up with is a safe vaccine, but frankly, the therapies to me are the most important because it takes care of people right now," he said.

"The vaccines have to be tested because it takes a longer period of time, but we have some great potential therapies already, and we will see how they are working. We will be able to report on that over the next week or two," he said, adding that at least 35 clinical trials of promising therapies are now underway.