Coronavirus: US deaths linked to disease now exceed China

The number of people who have died in the US after testing positive for coronavirus has risen to 3,393, surpassing China's 3,305 reported fatalities.

It comes after governor Andrew Cuomo announced the number of fatalities across New York state linked to COVID-19 had increased by 332 to 1,550 since Monday.

The total number of cases in the state, he said, now stands at almost 80,000.

More than 163,000 cases have been recorded in the country overall, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC).

Johns Hopkins University, which is compiling the data on cases, puts the overall number at just over 175,000.

Only Spain, with 8,189, and Italy , with 12,428, have recorded more deaths among countries that have the illness, according to Reuters.

Globally, more than 39,000 people have died since the pandemic began in China late last year, while there are more than 800,000 cases in all.

Mr Cuomo, whose brother, Chris, a presenter on CNN, has tested positive for the coronavirus, announced that he has ordered 17,000 ventilators from China, costing around $25,000 (£20,000) each.

Two hundred and fifty more ambulances and 500 paramedics and emergency medical technicians (EMTs) are headed to the city to help manage record numbers of calls for help but Mr Cuomo said the city needed up to a million extra workers.

As the city, the US epicentre of the outbreak, announced its first coronavirus death of someone under 18 years old, a temporary hospital set up in a convention centre has begun accepting patients.

A Navy hospital ship is expected to start taking patients from today. Beds at the Jacob Javits Convention Center and the USNS Comfort are designed to take pressure off New York City hospitals as coronavirus cases spike.

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The company said several of its hospitals - including Long Island Jewish Medical Center, Mather Hospital in Port Jefferson and Glen Cove Hospital, are at or near capacity.

"We're still going up the mountain. The main battle is at the top of the mountain, the apex of the curve," he said, adding that the apex is between seven and 21 days away.

Mr Cuomo said it was "unclear" when life will return to normal, and that he did not feel comfortable laying out a timeline.

In a sign of the impact on the economy, 1.2 million calls were made to the state's unemployment administration on Monday, compared with an average of 50,000 calls a week prior to the outbreak, an official said.

One of the New Yorkers who has died after contracting the illness was revealed to be world-renowned neurosurgeon, Dr James Goodrich. He died on Monday after suffering complications related to COVID-19.

On Monday, US President Donald Trump said coronavirus deaths in the US are expected to peak in two weeks, while his top scientific adviser, Dr Anthony Fauci, warned the outbreak could kill up to 200,000 Americans.

Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci told Sky News the coronavirus outbreak had been "an unusual crisis for this president".

Mr Trump, he said, "tries to go to a microphone in the White House or the Rose Garden and yell out fake science".

"But the numbers were overwhelming", forcing him to listen, the former aide said, to senior advisers such as Dr Fauci.

"He [Mr Trump] wasn't able to curve the reality of the science to what he wanted it to be," Mr Scaramucci said.