COVID-19 deaths in US soar above 30,000: Report

Washington, Apr 16: The coronavirus death toll in the United States surpassed 30,000 on Thursday, according to a tally by the Johns Hopkins University. The tracker says 30,990 people have now died in the country from COVID-19 since the start of the global health crisis.

The US has the highest death toll in the world, followed by Italy with 21,645 dead.

Earlier in the day, President Donald Trump said that US has "passed the peak" on new coronavirus cases and predicted that some states would reopen this month.

At the daily White House coronavirus briefing on Wednesday, Trump said new guidelines to reopen the country would be announced on Thursday after he speaks to governors.

"We'll be the comeback kids, all of us," he said.

"We want to get our country back."

The Trump administration has previously fixed May 1 as a possible date to reopen the world's largest economy, but the president said some states may be able to return to normalcy earlier than that.

OneIndia News (with PTI inputs)