US reports over 4,000 daily coronavirus deaths for first time

The United States reported more than 4,000 coronavirus deaths in one day for the first time on Thursday, as health systems struggle to cope with the number of sick and dying patients.

A total of 4,033 people died in connection with the disease within 24 hours, according to the Covid Tracking Project.

The country has seen a total of 365,000 deaths linked to the coronavirus so far, according to data from Johns Hopkins university, out of a population of 330 million people.

On Thursday more than 266,000 new cases were reported, bringing the total tally to over 21.6 million cases.

Case numbers are particularly high in the state of California and in Los Angeles County, where more than 1 in 5 test results are coming back positive.