US registers record 2,228 deaths in the past 24 hours: Johns Hopkins tally

The United States recorded 2,228 deaths related to the coronavirus pandemic over the past 24 hours, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University as of 8:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The number of fatalities was a sharp increase after two days in decline.

The outbreak has now claimed the lives of at least 25,757 people in the US, the most of any country.

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But President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that swaths of the United States could lift coronavirus shutdowns "very soon" and said he could see "rays of light" on the horizon for the world's largest economy.

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Trump also confirmed on Tuesday the suspension of US funding to the World Health Organization because he said it had covered up the seriousness of the COVID-19 outbreak in China before it spread around the world.

Trump told a press conference he was instructing his administration to halt funding while “a review is conducted to assess the World Health Organization’s role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus.”

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