US struggles as coronavirus death toll near 150,000; Florida records highest single day deaths

The United States recorded 10,000 coronavirus cases in eleven days with the death toll due to the virus climbing to 149,873 as Florida reported 216 coronavirus deaths on Wednesday.

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The number of fatalities due to the virus in Florida has now risen to 6,333 as 9,446 cases were recorded in the US state in 24 hours with the total number of cases rising to 451,423 amid reports of slow testing and contact tracing.

Republican Governor Ron DeSantis hit out at the poor testing record, saying: "You have somebody going through one of the sites, and then they get a result back 10 days later. That is not really going to be very helpful."

Florida which has become the new epicentre of the virus is now second only to California in total number of coronavirus cases even as Miami reported a sizeable decline in intensive care beds as the virus cases have surged.

Texas, Florida, California and Arizona have seen huge spike in cases in the past month putting pressure on health services as fatalities have increased manifold.

At least 4,000 fatalities have been recorded in Texas with Florida accounting for 2,900 deaths and California witnessing 2,500 casualties due to the virus. The United States now has 4.5 COVID-19 fatalities per 10,000 people which is one of the highest in the world.

The United States has the highest COVID-19 cases in the world with over 4.3 million cases.