U.S. Set New One-Day High For Coronavirus Deaths Saturday With 1,352, Total Pandemic Fatalities Now Top 8,300

Since the first coronavirus death in the United States was confirmed on March 1, just five weeks ago, 8,314 Americans have perished from the pandemic. But Saturday was the most deadly single day so far, as 1,352 people died in the U.S. as a result of COVD-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus.

That data comes from the COVID Tracking Project that is founded by Robinson Meyer and Alexis Madrigal; journalists at The Atlantic magazine; as well as Jeff Hammerbacher, founder of the media research firm Related Sciences. The project, which is an ongoing effort to compile statistics on the fast-spreading virus, now includes about 100 volunteer contributors and “data-grabbers.”

Saturday’s grim new record breaks the mark set the previous day, April 3, when 1,178 Americans died from the coronavirus infection, according to the COVID Tracking Project.

As The Inquisitr has reported, it was only on April 1 that the U.S. recorded at least 1,000 deaths in a single day for the first time. The number has climbed each day since then. But that date was only six days after the total death toll in the U.S. reached 1,000.

On April 1, the total exceeded 5,000, meaning that in less than a week, the total number of fatalities had multiplied by a factor of five.