US coronavirus deaths top 1,200 in last 24 hours

More than 1,200 people have died of coronavirus complications in the United States in the past day, John Hopkins University said on Sunday evening at 8:30pm EST (Monday 0030 GMT).

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The Baltimore-based university, which has been keeping a running tally of global coronavirus numbers, said there are at least 337,072 confirmed infections in the US with 9,633 deaths.

The United States is entering what a senior official warned on Sunday would be the "hardest" week of the coronavirus crisis as the death toll mounted, but some saw glimmers of hope from a slight slowing of fatalities in hard-hit New York.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks during a news conference in New York. John Minchillo/AP

Louisiana has become a hot spot for the virus, reporting a jump in deaths to nearly 500 and more than 13,000 cases. The governor predicted the state would run out of ventilators by Thursday.

Places such as Pennsylvania, Colorado and Washington, DC, are also starting to see rising deaths.

"This is going to be the hardest and the saddest week of most Americans' lives, quite frankly. This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment, only it's not going to be localized," U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams warned on Fox News on Sunday. "It's going to be happening all over the country. And I want America to understand that."

Emergency medical responders wheel an elderly patient into the emergency room in New York. Kathy Willens/AP

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Sunday that new hospitalisations had fallen by 50% over the previous 24 hours. He cautioned that it was not yet clear whether the crisis was reaching a plateau in the state, which has a total of 4,159 deaths and more than 122,000 cases, by far the most of any US state.

Nationally, cases the respiratory disease topped 337,000, while the death toll stood at 9,633, according to a Reuters tally.

Cuomo said that once the peak of the epidemic passed, a mass rollout of rapid testing would be critical to help the nation "return to normalcy."

President Donald Trump said the country faced a "great hour of grief," but expressed hope that deaths could be "leveling off” in New York.

Shoppers at The Home Depot wait in line before entering on Sunday. Yong Kim/AP

"We see light at the end of the tunnel. Things are happening," he told reporters.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of Trump's coronavirus task force, said it took weeks for efforts like social distancing and stay-at-home orders to slow the virus' spread.

"What you're hearing about potential light at the end of the tunnel doesn't take away from the fact that tomorrow, the next day, are going to look really bad," Fauci told reporters.

Agencies