The number of people in America to die after testing positive for coronavirus has exceeded the 5,000 mark, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.

The country’s death toll stands at 5,138, after 884 people died over the course of 24 hours – a new daily record for the US. More than 216,000 Americans have been infected.

To date, the US has suffered the third greatest loss of life during the Covid-19 pandemic, behind Italy and Spain, but more than China.

As the country’s outbreak continues to escalate, president Donald Trump has warned of trying times to come while acknowledging that the federal stockpile of personal protective equipment and medical supplies is nearly depleted.

“Difficult days are ahead for our nation,” he said. “We’re going to have a couple of weeks, starting pretty much now, but especially a few days from now that are going to be horrific.”

New York has been hit hardest by the virus, having so far reported 1,374 deaths.

Images from the city have shown bodies being loaded onto refrigerated morgue trucks outside overwhelmed hospitals.

New York mayor Bill de Blasio has said the city is in discussion with hotels as part of efforts to add 65,000 additional hospital beds by the end of the month.

“This is going to be an epic process during the month of April to build out all that capacity,” he said. “But this goal can be reached.”

Governor Andrew Cuomo has meanwhile told police to enforce rules more aggressively for social distancing amid the city’s spiralling outbreak.

“Young people must get this message, and they still have not gotten the message. You still see too many situations with too much density by young people,” Mr Cuomo said in imposing rules to close playgrounds, swing sets, basketball courts and similar spaces.

“How reckless and irresponsible and selfish for people not to do it on their own,” he added.

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Clusters of cases have also broken out in New Orleans, Detroit and Southern California.

In Connecticut, a six-week-old baby has died from Covid-19, believed to be America’s youngest victim of the virus so far.

After Florida, Georgia and Mississippi became the latest US states to order people to stay at home, more than 75 per cent of the country’s population is now under lockdown.

But despite such measures, White House medical experts have forecast that some 100,000 to 240,000 people could still die from the disease.

On Wednesday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) voiced deep concern about the rapid escalation and global spread of Covid-19.

“In the next few days, we will reach one million confirmed cases and 50,000 deaths worldwide,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.