US surpasses 180,000 virus deaths

The United States passed the grim milestone of 180,000 coronavirus deaths Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University’s real-time tracker.

The US added 931 new virus deaths in 24 hours, the Baltimore-based university reported at 8:30 pm (0030 GMT Friday), bringing the total death toll to 180,527.

An additional 42,859 new cases brought the overall caseload to 5,860,397. The US is by far the hardest-hit country in the world in terms of both number of cases and deaths.

At least 2,101,326 have recovered from the virus in the country.

The number of new Covid-19 cases in the US has dropped in recent weeks, but the country is far from out of the woods, with case numbers varying vastly by region.