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COVID-19: US records 1,783 deaths in 24-hrs, as Italy closes ports to migrants

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CORONAVIRUS: Iran toll rises as Japan announces 15th death

In the United States of America the death toll arising from the outbreak of the deadly COVID-19 disease has surpassed 16,600, with 1,783 new deaths in 24 hours, according to a tally by the Johns Hopkins University.

Reports say the number of hospitalised patients in the hardest-hit state of New York dropped to a one percent increase, offering a glimmer of hope as the global death toll inches closer to 100,000 amid 1.6 million cases.

However, authorities say that the number of bodies buried daily at a mass grave in New York City, where the unclaimed bodies from the city are buried, has increased during the coronavirus pandemic.

READ ALSO: ‘We’re in a crazy situation so there will be crazy rumors’, Bill Gates responds to vaccine conspiracy theories

Meanwhile, Italian authorities have signed an order that for the duration of the national health emergency sparked by coronavirus, domestic ports could no longer be considered a “place of safety”.

Even though international rescue vessels are kept offshore by this new measure, small ships setting sail from Libya and Tunisia have continued to arrive on the Italian coastline.

“We cannot stop migrants: if they set sail, it means that they have to dock somewhere,” Salvatore Martello, mayor of the island of Lampedusa, told Al Jazeera

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