United States has become the first country to record more than 2,000 coronavirus deaths in one day, with 2,108 fatalities in the past 24 hours, according to the Johns Hopkins University tally.

US has now recorded 18,586 deaths, closing in on the toll of 18,849 dead in Italy which has seen the most fatalities so far, and is also approaching half a million confirmed cases with 496,535 as on Saturday - up 35,098 in the past 24 hours.