The number of coronavirus infections in the United States has surpassed 600,000 as the death increased to more than 25,000.
Coronavirus cases increased by more than 26,500 in 24 hours, bringing the total number of infections to 604,270.
More than 1,500 Americans died in a day, bringing the death toll from the coronavirus to 25,289.
Deaths in hard-hit New York state are now at 10,834 after increasing by 778 in a day.
New York state, which remains the epicenter of the US outbreak, has 202,208 confirmed cases.
New Jersey follows with 68,824 infections and 2,805 deaths. Massachusetts has overtaken Michigan to become the state with the third highest number of infections with nearly 27,000 cases and 844 deaths.
Michigan has just over 25,000 confirmed infections and 1,602 deaths.
The tolls come as lawmakers and health officials work on deciding when the US should reopen again.
Current social distancing measures in the United States are due to expire on April 30 but health experts are urging for continued social distancing measures to defeat the coronavirus.
Top infectious disease Dr Anthony Fauci said on Tuesday that a May 1 restart for the economy, which is what President Trump is pushing for, was ‘overly optimistic’.
It comes as a battle erupted between Trump and state governors over who has the power to lift restrictions aimed at curbing the coronavirus pandemic.
Dr Fauci said public health officials must be able to test for the virus quickly, isolate new cases and track down new infections before social-distancing restrictions can be eased.
‘We have to have something in place that is efficient and that we can rely on, and we’re not there yet,’ Dr Fauci said in an interview with the Associated Press.
Dr Fauci, who frequently appears with Trump at White House coronavirus briefings, has previously contradicted Trump on issues including an unproven treatment touted by the president.
Britain, with the fastest-growing outbreak in western Europe, has understated the human and economic cost of the coronavirus, according to new information released today.
The government’s Office of National Statistics released figures indicating that deaths could be at least 10 percent higher than the official toll — 12,107 as of Tuesday — which does not take into account many people who die in nursing homes or at home.
More than 2,000 nursing homes, about 13 percent of the country’s total, have had coronavirus cases, said Dr. Chris Whitty, the government’s chief medical adviser.
Workers in many of the homes have complained of an acute shortage of protective gear.
President Trump, who has been under criticism for his handling of the response to the coronavirus and has seen his poll numbers drop, today blamed the World Health Organization for what he called its failures in the crisis and said he planned to stop American funding of the organization.
The announcement came as MTrump continued to be angered by criticism of his response to the pandemic and as he sought to gain credit for how he has performed.
“Everybody knows what is going on there,” he said, blaming the organization for what he described as a “disastrous decision to oppose travel restrictions from China and other nations.”
Trump has been defensive about his decision to institute early travel restrictions on China, crediting himself with saving hundreds of thousands of lives while sustaining criticism for being xenophobic and racist.
But Trump has not addressed his administration’s inaction after that decision and the gap in the timeline of his response between the travel restrictions announced on Jan. 31 and the declaration of a national emergency on March 13.