Coronavirus: US death toll smashes through 10,000

The grim milestone comes amid tentative signs of a plateau in the death rate in New York.

The death toll from coronavirus in the United States has smashed through the 10,000 mark although there are tentative signs of a plateau in the death rate in the nation’s hotspot of New York.

The grim milestone of 10,000 deaths – the third highest after Italy and Spain – was reached after around 1,000 more deaths in the US in the past 24 hours.

The US now has 370,000 confirmed cases of the virus – close to three times that of any other nation – with more than 10,500 deaths.

Donald Trump said the country was now entering “a critical and difficult phase of our battle ...New York and New Jersey are very hot zones.’’

“The next week and a half is going to be a big surge,’’ Mr Trump said, as he praised the country’s health care workers as “intrepid heroes’’ and “warriors’’.

Mr Trump also praised British Prime Minister Boris Johnson who has been admitted to intensive care in London with the caronavirus.

“We’re very saddened to hear that he was taken into intensive care,” he said. “He’s been a really good friend. He’s been really something very special. Strong. Resolute...when you are brought into intensive care that gets very, very serious.”

Mr Trump said his administration had contacted Mr Johnson’s doctors to see if the US could somehow assist in his treatment, possibly with therapeutic treatments.

Mr Trump also revealed he had a 15-minute phone conversation about the federal government’s handling of the coronavirus with his likely Democrat opponent Joe Biden.

The two had previously taunted each other on twitter but Mr Trump said their was call was “very friendly’’.

“He gave me his point of view and I fully understand that and we just had a very friendly conversation...it was really good, really nice, I think it was very much so. I appreciate his calling,” the president said.

America’s coronavirus epicenter of New York recorded another 599 deaths in 24 hours, but Governor Andrew Cuomo said he was encouraged that the numbers had not jumped higher after 594 deaths the previous day and 630 before that. The state’s death toll stands at 4,758.

Mr Cuomo said it was early days but that the state could be experiencing a “flattening of the curve,” given that the death toll has been “effectively flat for two days.”

“While none of this is good news, (it) is better than the increases we have seen,” he said.

He also noted that the intubations, hospitalisations and intensive care unit admissions were also down.

But he warned the numbers may still rise sharply again and that the strain on the state’s medical system right now was unsustainable.

“If we are plateauing, we are plateauing at a very high level,” he said. “And there is tremendous stress on the healthcare system.

“This is a hospital system where we have our foot to the floor, and the engine is at redline. And you can’t go any faster, and by the way you can’t stay at redline for any period of time, because the system will blow.”

Despite the strain of the health system and the ongoing risk of running out of ventilators and a shortage of health care staff, he said no patients had yet died because of these shortages.

“Have we lost anyone because we didn’t have a bed or a ventilator or health care staff? No,” he said. “The people we lost were the people we couldn’t save.”

However in another hotspot of Louisiana, Governor John Bel Edwards warned that the state could run out of ventilators on Friday (AEST).

Louisiana has the fastest rate of infections in the country with more than 500 dead since the first case was discovered on March 9.

Other virus hot spots of Michigan and New Jersey are expected to see deaths peak within days. US Surgeon General Jerome Adams has warned that America this week faces its ‘Pearl Harbour’ with expectations of a surge in caronavirus deaths.

“The next week is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment,” Dr Adams said. “It’s going to be our 9/11 moment … it’s going to be the hardest moment for many Americans in their entire lives.”

Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia