Covid-19, the highly infectious lung disease caused by the coronavirus, killed at least 1,900 people in the US for the second consecutive day on Wednesday, while infections reached 430,000 including more than 14,700 deaths, media reports said.

The number of known coronavirus infections in New York state alone approached 150,000 yesterday (April 8), reported Reuters.

A total of 779 people had died in the past day in New York state, Governor Andrew Cuomo was quoted as saying in the report.  New Jersey reported 275 had died there, said Cuomo. Both totals exceeded one-day records from just a day earlier.

New York is one of 42 states where governors have issued “stay-at-home” orders and closed all non-essential workplaces.

US deaths due to coronavirus topped 14,700 on Wednesday, the second highest reported number in the world behind Italy, according to a Reuters tally. New York state accounts for over a third of the US total.

Officials have warned Americans to expect alarming numbers of coronavirus deaths this week, even as an influential university model on Wednesday scaled back its projected US pandemic death toll by 26 per cent to 60,000.