WASHINGTON, April 24-- More than 50,000 people have died of COVID-19 in the United States while debates are heightening over reopening the country's economy severely battered by the virus. A total of 870,468 cases have been reported in the United States with the death toll reaching 50,031 as of 11 a.m. Friday (1500 GMT), according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University. The state of New York suffered the most, with 263,460 cases and 20,982 deaths. In other hardest-hit states, New Jersey reported 5,426 fatalities, Michigan reported 2,977 deaths and Massachusetts recorded 2,360 deaths, the data showed. |