Image Source : AP (FILE) Coronavirus: US surpasses Italy, records the highest coronavirus deaths in the world

The US has now become the country with the maximum number of coronavirus deaths. On Saturday evening, the US surpassed Italy's death toll. According to the numbers available by 9 pm on Saturday, the number of coronavirus deaths in Italy was 18,849. The death toll in the US was 18,883.

The major metropolis of New York is swamped with an alarming number of cases. There are even reports of burial grounds being hunted to bury the rising number of the dead. There are now increasing fears that coronavirus pandemic will increasingly affect the US heartland.

Around the world, meanwhile, European countries used roadblocks, drones, helicopters, mounted patrols and the threat of fines to keep people from travelling over Easter weekend. And with infections levelling off in Italy, Spain and other places on the Continent, governments took tentative steps toward loosening the weeks-long shutdowns of much of public life.

Glorious weather across Europe posed an extra test of people's discipline.

“Don’t do silly things,” said Domenico Arcuri, Italy’s special commissioner for the virus emergency. “Don’t go out, continue to behave responsibly as you have done until today, use your head and your sense of responsibility.”

Italian authorities set up roadblocks on main thoroughfares in and out of Milan and along highway exits to discourage people from going on holiday trips. British police kept a close watch on gatherings in parks and at the seaside on what was set to be the hottest day of the year. France deployed some 160,000 police, including officers on horseback who patrolled beaches and parks.

“It’s useless to pack your bags for a vacation,” the Paris police headquarters tweeted.

The pandemic’s centre of gravity has long since shifted from China to Europe and the United States, which now has by far the largest number of confirmed cases, with more than half a million.

(With inputs from AP)

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