
The US set a grim global record on Saturday with the number of deaths from coronavirus leaping by 1,497 in just one day taking the death toll past 8,500.

New York City alone suffered 387 deaths, taking its death toll to 2,254 and hospital corridors were littered with body bags containing the latest victims.

The US death toll skyrocketed to 8,503 by the end of Saturday, and the number of cases surged by 33,324 leaving 311,632 Americans infected by the killer virus.

This marks the highest number of infections anywhere in the world.

While the death toll in Italy (15,362) and Spain (11,947) is still higher, the US now dwarfs the hard-hit European nations' infections, with both Italy (124,632) and Spain (126,168) reporting only around a third of the number of infections across the US.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo warned that the pandemic is 'like a fire spreading', as his state continues to be ravaged and ruined by the crisis.

The gut-wrenching death toll comes as:

US infections reached almost three times that of the next hardest-hit countries Spain and Italy

788 New Yorkers died from the virus in 24 hours as the city's fatalities make up a quarter of the US death toll

New York City prepares to wake up to 'D-Day' Sunday, when the Big Apple will find out if its medical supplies are going to hold up as the outbreak reaches its peak

Shocking images show body bags containing the latest victims of the killer virus spilling out into the corridors of the city's hospitals

The NYPD is on its knees with 18,000 members testing positive and 10 dead

NY Gov Cuomo said the pandemic was like a 'fire spreading' as more states emerge as new epicenters

Louisiana has become a key concern with New Orleans patients dying at twice the rate per capita as in New York

Michigan now has more cases that California with 12,744

President Trump told Americans to prepare for the 'toughest week' next week

The president also said the NFL would kick off soon and that he didn't want the country shut down for 'months and months'

The US' epicenter for the outbreak is yet to reach its 'apex' but its hospitals and morgues are near breaking point already.

New York state's death toll surged to 3,565 Saturday as another 788 New Yorkers died from the virus, marking the biggest one-day toll there yet.

The number of new cases in the state reached 10,675 and the total number of infections topped 113,833, higher than the number of infections in the whole of hard-hit Spain.

New York City alone made up 387 of the state's 788 new deaths.

Bodies are seen lying in corridors inside the Wyckoff Hospital as the healthcare system is overwhelmed with fatalities

New York City hospitals continue to be overwhelmed with the mounting bodies, with shocking images emerging of body bags containing the latest victims of the killer virus spilling out into the corridors at Wyckoff Hospital in Brooklyn

New York City alone made up 387 of the state's 788 new deaths, and more than half of the US's daily deaths from coronavirus. The makeshift morgue outside Wyckoff hospital in Brooklyn contains the latest victims of the killer illness

The body of a dead coronavirus patient is seen being moved in an orange body bag from Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn to a refrigerator truck being used as temporary morgue

In total, the city's 2,254 fatalities account for more than a quarter of all coronavirus deaths across the 50 states.

The rate of new cases also showed no sign of slowing, with 6,147 recorded Saturday taking the number of infections to a staggering 63,306.

Long Island is seeing a spike in cases, with Cuomo warning that it 'is the area that is growing'.

More than 13,000 cases have been confirmed in Nassau County, as questions are being asked whether wealthy New Yorkers fleeing the city to retreat to holiday homes there could have triggered the spread.

New York City hospitals continue to be overwhelmed with the mounting bodies, with shocking images emerging of body bags containing the latest victims of the killer virus spilling out into the corridors at Wyckoff Hospital in Brooklyn.

As the number of dead rises, funeral homes have reported becoming 'overwhelmed' with the grim death tally and bodies are now lying for days in refrigerated trucks outside hospitals.

Crematories have extended their hours and burned bodies into the night, as city officials were looking elsewhere in the state for temporary interment sites.

Because of the risk of infection, many people with critically ill relatives in New York City are unable to see their loved ones in their final hours.

A resident at New York-Presbyterian hospital said he and his colleagues have made several death notification phone calls every shift this week.

'There's something sort of unquantifiably painful about telling a family their loved one died without letting them see them,' he said.

PREVIOUS DEADLIEST DAYS FROM CORONAVIRUS US - April 4 - 1,497 deaths US - April 3 - 1,084 deaths US - April 1 - 1,069 deaths Italy - March 27 - 969 deaths Spain - April 2 - 950 deaht Advertisement

Funerals cannot be held due to social distancing guidelines meaning loved ones are left mourning them from afar.

Doctors at the Brooklyn Hospital Center told how they are buckling under the strain of the pandemic, with its ICU overflowing desperately trying to save people of all ages.

Dr. Joshua Rosenberg, a critical care doctor, told the New York Times its ICU had more than doubled in size in the last week, turning the chemotherapy infusion unit into a spillover unit in order to take on the growing number of people in a critical condition.

Concerns are mounting that there will soon be a shortage of life-saving ventilators.

The hospital temporarily ran out of protective plastic gowns, the main sedative for patients on ventilators and key blood pressure medication, reported the New York Times.

Shortages of gowns and PPE are such a concern, there is no chance of changing in between patients.

Nurses putting their names on protective clothing to be worn many times resting outside the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn, NYC

An NYC healthcare worker empties a trashcan containing contents that includes used PPE as hospitals risk running out of the critical supplies

A trash can is full of used masks and gloves outside Wyckoff Hospital in Brooklyn. Another hospital in Brooklyn said it temporarily ran out of gowns Saturday

Around a third of medical staff were also out of work sick as Cuomo again begged for more medical professionals to come to New York and support it in its hours of need.

He announced that he will sign an executive order to allow medical students who were slated to graduate this spring to begin practicing now.

Trump announced Saturday that he will be sending 1,000 extra medical personnel from the armed forces to New York.

On Friday, all cell phones in the city were issued an emergency alert calling on all healthcare workers to aid in medical facilities if they can.

About 85,000 medical workers have answered the cry for help, with 22,000 traveling from out of state to work in the epicenter.

Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, has been set up as a field hospital for coronavirus patients

A bed in the field hospital. New Orleans is recording a higher death rate per capita than New York

The city teeters on the brink of collapse with this Sunday, April 5, deemed 'D-Day' for the city when it will reveal whether supplies are going to hold up as the outbreak in the Big Apple reaches its peak.

Cuomo has already stressed that hospitals in the city have just a few days left before they will run out of ventilators.

Oregon loaned the state 140 ventilators, the governor said Saturday.

The situation will only get more dire with New York's apex, or the peak in the number of new daily cases, likely about a week away.

'By the numbers, we're not yet at the apex. We're getting closer depending whose model you're looking at,' said Cuomo. 'We're somewhere in the seven day range.'

The city's essential workforce is falling victim to the pandemic, with more than 1,800 NYPD members testing positive for the virus.

On Friday, almost 7,000 uniformed officers called in sick.

By Saturday, ten NYPD members had died from coronavirus, with Police Commissioner Dermot Shea announcing the tragic deaths of veteran schools safety agent Luis Albino and Auxiliary Police Lt. Pierre Moise on Friday.

A medic of the Elmhurst Hospital Center medical team reacts after stepping outside of the emergency room on Saturday in Queens, New York City

In Detroit, the TCF convention center has been converted into a field hospital. Detroit now has the most deaths of any US metro area other than New York City

Both had served more than 20 years in the force.

As the nation looks on in despair, other states are fast on track to become the new deadly hotspots.

'It is like a fire spreading,' Cuomo warned Saturday, of the alarming spread of the virus from the New York City epicenter. 'The fire, it doesn't max out in one place, but it consumes where it is and it's moving out.'

Michigan now has more cases than California, with 12,744 in Michigan and 12,603 in California. Outside of New York City, Detroit is the metro area with the highest death toll, with 223 dead in Wayne County.

Louisiana has become a key concern as it reported a jump in deaths to 409 on Saturday.

The Gulf state's largest city, New Orleans, where Mardi Gras celebrations in late February are believed to have helped spread the virus before social distancing orders were imposed, has become a focal point of the health crisis.

Patients in New Orleans are dying at twice the rate per capita as in New York.

Louisiana Governor John Edwards said he spoke with Vice President Mike Pence on Saturday - and that he had been promised an additional 200 ventilators from the national stockpile.

President Donald Trump warned Americans Saturday that there will be many more deaths in the coming week.

Trump predicted that the coming week would be one of the 'toughest' weeks the country could face during the pandemic.

'This will probably be the toughest week - between this week and next week,' Trump said during his daily White House briefing.

'There will be a lot of death, unfortunately. But a lot less death than if this wasn't done,' he added of the measures taken to prevent the spread of the virus.

Fears that the worst is yet to come over the Easter holidays fly in the face of Trump's past claims that he wanted the nation to be back to business by the date.

But the president continued to moan about the effects on the economy as the fatalities rage on around him: 'We don't want to be doing this for months and months and months. This country wasn't meant for this.'

Earlier Saturday, Trump had said that Dana Perino, a Fox News Channel host and former White House press secretary under President George W. Bush, had a 'good idea!' when she floated the idea that the president should form a second coronavirus taskforce to plan how, exactly, to open back up the economy.

President Trump told Americans Saturday that the coming week would be one of the 'toughest' weeks the country could face during the pandemic

'Thinking about it,' the president confirmed at the briefing. 'Getting a group of people.'

At noon on Saturday Trump met with all the major league sports commissioners.

ESPN reported that he said on the call that he predicted the NFL season would kick off in time.

At the briefing he refused to give a when, disputing he had said August.

'I want fans back in the arenas,' he said. 'Whenever we're ready, as soon as we can.'

The president then predicted it would be sooner than later.

He also said the Republicans had no 'contingency plan' to reschedule the August Republican National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Democrats, whose convention in Milwaukee was supposed to be held in July, already announced a new August date.

'We're not going to have to have separation for the rest of our time on the planet,' the president said.

Emergency responders in protective gear disinfect themselves at the Southeast Nursing and Rehabilitation Center nursing home, where many residents and employees has been infected with coronavirus disease, in San Antonio, Texas on Saturday

Volunteers direct vehicles that made their way to the parking lot at Reagan Early College High School in northeast Austin, Texas to pick up to a 30-pound box of food Saturday

White House medical experts have forecast that between 100,000 to 240,000 Americans could be killed in the pandemic, even if sweeping orders to stay home are followed.

Almost all Americans are under orders from state and local officials to stay home except for essential outings such as grocery shopping or seeing a doctor.

Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota are now the only states that do not have either major city or statewide stay-at-home orders in place.

Areas of the country such as Florida and Texas that had been slow to lock down have started practicing social distancing and sheltering at home.

'We see what's going on in New York now, we see that people are dying,' Rick Scott, a U.S. senator from Florida, told Fox News Channel.

'People are beginning to understand that the best way that we can slow the spread and actually avoid death is by this stay-at-home standard, going out only for essential services,' Texas governor Greg Abbott told the channel. He was among the last governors to issue a statewide order telling residents to avoid leaving their home.

There were still some hold-outs elsewhere, though.

Louisiana pastor Tony Spell said he plans to hold three services at his 1,000-member Life Tabernacle megachurch in a suburb of Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Palm Sunday this weekend, defying state orders against assembling in large groups.

'We're defying the rules because the commandment of God is to spread the Gospel,' he told Reuters.

Louisiana pastor Tony Spell said he plans to hold three services at his 1,000-member Life Tabernacle megachurch in a suburb of Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Palm Sunday

Congregants leave after an evening service at Life Tabernacle Church in Louisiana on Tuesday. Pastor Tony Spell held the service despite facing misdemeanor charges

Meanwhile, the Chinese government helped facilitate a donation of 1,000 ventilators that will arrive at John F. Kennedy International Airport today, Cuomo said.

The donation was funded by Jack Ma and Joe Tsai, the Chinese billionaires who co-founded internet retail giant Alibaba.

'This is a big deal and it's going to make a significant difference for us,' Cuomo said, adding that the state of Oregon is also sending 140 ventilators to New York.

Cuomo is also looking for ventilators closer to home, and has issued an order that forces even private hospitals in the state to redistribute ventilators to the hospitals most in need.

'I want this all to be over,' Cuomo said. 'It's only gone on for 30 days since our first case. It feels like an entire lifetime.'

A member of the medical staff takes break outside Wyckoff Hospital in Brooklyn on Saturday. New York state's coronavirus toll rose at a devastating pace to 3,565 deaths Saturday

EMTs take a coronavirus patient to the hospital at Queens Mount Sinai Hospital on Friday