With 740 new coronavirus deaths in 24 hours, the United States has seen more people die from the pandemic than died in World War I, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

According to AFP, the new figure, counted at 8:30pm (0030 GMT) on Tuesday, brought the country's total Covid-19 deaths up to 116,854, the tracker from the Baltimore-based university showed.

The country's pandemic death toll had already passed that of its soldiers in the Vietnam War in late April.