The U.S. death toll from the new coronavirus rose sharply, with nearly 50% more people killed Tuesday than any previous day in the epidemic, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University.

Between 8 p.m. Monday and the same time Tuesday, 1,939 people in the U.S. died from Covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus. The previous record was set Saturday, when 1,320 died.

Contributing...