U.S. coronavirus deaths top 45,000

The U.S. death told from COVID-19 passed 45,000 late Tuesday, hitting 45,063 by early Wednesday, according to a count of recorded cases by Johns Hopkins University. Almost a third of those fatalities, 14,887, were in New York City, with hundreds of deaths in cities and counties throughout the U.S. Tuesday's deaths marked a single-day high in a separate tally by the COVID-19 Tracking Project, and for the first time the uptick wasn't fed by New York.

As White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx reminded America on Tuesday evening, deaths are a lagging indicator and don't reflect the current spread of the virus.

Worldwide, the number of reported COVID-19 cases topped 2.56 million and there were 177,466 deaths. After the U.S., Italy had the most recorded deaths, at 24,648, followed by Spain, France, and Britain.

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