Washington, April 24 (RHC)-- The novel coronavirus continues to ravage the United States, where the official death toll is rapidly approaching 50,000 — more than a quarter of the 191,000 deaths reported worldwide from COVID-19. 

A tally by Johns Hopkins researchers on Thursday found 3,176 people died of the disease in the U.S. in just 24 hours.  And many funeral directors and medical examiners say thousands more U.S. deaths from COVID-19 remain uncounted. 

The disease continues to batter the U.S. economy.  On Thursday, the Labor Department reported another 4.4 million U.S. workers filed for unemployment benefits over the last week, raising new jobless claims over the past five weeks to more than 26 million — a scale that hasn’t been seen since the Great Depression.