US coronavirus cases top 701,000; death toll rises to 37,055

The number of COVID-19 cases in the US has surpassed the 701,000 mark as of Saturday morning, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

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The figures by the university's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the US now has a total of 701,610 confirmed coronavirus cases with 37,055 deaths.

With this, the US currently accounts for the highest number of cases and deaths in the world.

Brooklyn's Green-Wood cemetery has seen cremations more than double and five times more burials than usual. AFP

The state of New York, the epicentre of the pandemic in the country, has reported 230,579 cases and 17,131 fatalities.

According to the CSSE, a total of 3,574,392 people across the US have been tested for the deadly disease so far.

Coronavirus deaths have surged past 150,000 worldwide with nearly a quarter of them in the United States, where President Donald Trump lent his support to protestors rallying against lockdown orders.

Evidence is mounting that social distancing successfully slowed the pandemic after more than half of humanity -- 4.5 billion people -- were confined to their homes.

Emergency medical responders wheel an elderly patient into the emergency room at Brooklyn Hospital in New York. File/AP

Governments around the world are now grappling with when and how to ease lockdowns that have crippled the global economy, even as the COVID-19 death toll climbs further in hard-hit countries.

Demonstrators in three US states assembled in public this week to call for an end to the restrictions, with the largest protest in Michigan attracting 3,000 people — some of whom were armed.

Trump has largely left decisions on easing lockdowns to state officials even as he outlined guidelines for a staged reopening of the national economy.

Agencies