Coronavirus: US death toll passes 50,000

The US virus death toll has surpassed 50,000, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, in what is the world's deadliest Covid-19 outbreak.

More than 3,000 deaths came in the last 24 hours, and there are now over 870,000 confirmed cases nationwide.

But the US still has a lower mortality rate than most European nations based on current case counts, as the White House task force has emphasised.

Recent rises are also partly due to the inclusion of "probable" virus deaths.

The US has by far the highest death toll and case count in the world.

However, it has a population of 330 million, much higher than other worst-affected countries such as Spain and Italy.

Dr Deborah Birx, an expert on the White House Covid-19 task force, has said the country has "one of the lowest mortality rates in the entire world".

On a per-capita basis, the reported US death rate of 1.4 is lower than Spain, Italy, France, Belgium and the UK.

/BBC/