The U.S. death toll from Covid-19 surpassed a grim new milestone of 250,000 lives lost as New York City’s public school system – the nation’s largest – called a halt to in-classroom instruction, citing a jump in coronavirus infection rates.

The White House coronavirus task force warned that much of the country is in the grips of an “unrelenting” surge in Covid-19 cases and urged tough countermeasures, as the reported number of U.S. infections hit a new daily record of more than 91,000.