Even as the world is battling with the Coronavirus pandemic, fatalities at the worst hit United States reached 32,917 on Thursday, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

This is by far the highest daily death toll  with a marked increase of 4,491 deaths as of 8:30 pm on Friday (0030 GMT) in the past 24 hours. But the figure likely includes “probable” deaths related to COVID-19, which were not previously included.

The New York City, the financial capital of the world, has emerged as the epi-center of coronavirus , overtaking Wuhan which was the epi-centre earlier. A city of 8.3 million, which is one of the most densely populated cities in the US, this week announced it would add 3,778 “probable” coronavirus deaths to its toll. It’s the epicenter of the country’s COVID-19 epidemic, has suffered more than 12,000 deaths across the state alone.

As of Thursday night, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had recorded 31,071 coronavirus deaths, including 4,141 “probable” virus deaths.

The US has the highest death toll in the world, followed by Italy with 22,170 dead although its population is just a fifth of that of the US.

Spain has recorded 19,130 deaths, followed by France with 17,920.

America recorded 667,800 positive cases of coronavirus , which has seen a record number of deaths over the past two days.

Earlier, President Donald Trump has declared a national emergency and all the 50 States have been notified with major disaster declaration. More than 95 per cent of the country’s 330 million population are under stay-at-home order.

More than 50,000 armed forces personnel have been deployed in fight against COVID-19.

After an initial two-week social mitigation measures, that includes social distancing, the measures have been extended till April 30. Initially, members of the White House Task Force on Coronavirus had projected between one and two lakhs deaths. Now, they have dropped the projection to 60,000 deaths, mainly due to the successful implementation of these measures.

“The people of our country have gone through a lot. But we did it the right way. And we look like we’ll be coming in on the very, very low side, really below the lowest, the lowest side of the curve of death,” Trump told Fox News on Saturday night.

Trump asserted that situation was improving in places like New York, where there is a drop in new patients. Responding to a question, he said he wanted the country to open up as soon as possible.

However, he has not taken a decision so far, even as some media reports said that he the President was looking for early May.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump on  Thursday evening announced plans to reopen the US economy, allowing each state’s governor “to take a phased deliberate approach to reopening their individual states.”

(With agency inputs)