Covid-19: US sees 2,108 deaths in a day; France, Brazil tallies top 1,000

The death toll in the United States has surpassed the level of 16,500 so far

The tally of positive coronavirus (Covid-19) cases globally went past the 1.6-million mark on Friday, and the overall death toll breached the 100,000 mark. The US, which suffered record 2,108 single-day fatalities, was the worst affected. While India also saw its biggest loss of lives to Covid-19 in a day, at 40, countries like Brazil and France saw their respective numbers for fatalities go past 1,000.

Here is a look at how bad Friday proved in terms of death tally for the worst affected countries:

United States: New coronavirus deaths in the United States surpassed the 2,000 mark on Friday, the highest tally of fatalities recorded within a day so far. The total number of people who have succumbed to the virus in the country has now reached 18,747, just 100 less than the death toll of Italy, which has been the worst affected in terms of fatalities.

At least 2,108 people died of complications related to Covid-19 in the US on Friday.

Altough, US President Donald Trump underplayed the number of fatalities, saying that Covid-19 deaths in the United States would be "substantially below the 100,000" figure projected by models last week. He said the situation in cities like Detroit and New Orleans appears to be stabilising.

United Kingdom: In UK, the number of coronavirus-related deaths rose by 980 over a day to 8,958, the Department of Health and Social Care said on Friday. So far, at least 5,706 more people tested positive for the coronavirus, bringing the total to 73,758, with over 256,000 people tested since the start of the outbreak in UK.

France: France on Friday reported 987 more Covid-19 deaths registered in hospitals and nursing homes over the last 24 hours, although the number of patients in intensive care fell for the second day in a row. The new deaths -- including 554 in hospitals and 433 in nursing homes --- brought the total toll in France to 13,197 since the epidemic began, top health official Jerome Salomon told reporters.

Turkey: More than 1,000 people have died from the novel coronavirus in Turkey, according to the health minister Friday, as 4,747 new cases were recorded. Fahrettin Koca shared the latest figures in an image on Twitter, showing 98 more people had died in the last 24 hours, pushing the total death toll to 1,006. With the new cases of COVID-19, Turkey has officially recorded a total of 47,029 people with the virus.

Brazil: The death toll from the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) passed the mark of 1,000 deaths in Brazil as the number of confirmed cases went from 8,216 to 19,638, with 1,056 deaths, the Brazilian health ministry said. Sao Paulo, the most populous and industrialized state in the country, with a population of 46 million people, has the most cases in all of Brazil, with 4,620 infections and 275 deaths.

Italy: The country updated its coronavirus case count by 3,951 to 147,577. Italy's Covid-19 death toll rose by 610 in the last 24 hours to 18,279. Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Friday that he had taken the "difficult" decision to extend the Mediterranean country's economically crippling lockdown until May 3.