US passes 250,000 deaths from coronavirus

The United States has seen more than 250,000 deaths due to Covid-19 as a new swath of data was released that pushed the stricken country over the grim landmark on Wednesday.

Latest figures from Johns Hopkins University showed that the number of people killed by the virus is now 250,180.

The news comes amid record infections across the US, with the Trump administration repeatedly failing to get a grip on the Covid-19 crisis. Most recently Trump has refused to concede he lost the presidential election to Joe Biden who this week said “more people may die” if he continues to hamper his transition.

More than 11 million Americans have been infected during the pandemic, by far the largest total in the world; the US also has the highest death toll, and is among the worst-hit of developed nations in terms of its death rate.

For the past two weeks more than 100,000 people have been infected every day as the country has seen huge rises in positive cases in almost every state, but especially in the midwest and Great Plains states.