The US death toll from the coronavirus pandemic surpassed 50,000 on Friday, AFP reported, citing a running tally by Johns Hopkins University.

According to the tracker, 50,031 people have now died in the United States from Covid-19 since the start of the global health crisis, with more than 870,000 confirmed cases.

The United States is the hardest hit of any country in the world as the coronavirus pandemic unfolds. By 12:30am (GMT) on Friday, 3,176 people died of COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins — one of the deadliest days recorded anywhere since the start of the pandemic.

Despite the alarming figures, several US states such as Georgia and Texas were preparing to reopen some businesses as they started lifting lockdown measures.