Washington, Dec 10 (IANS): The US registered more than 3,000 coronavirus fatalities in the last 24 hours, the highest single-day spike since April, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

On Wednesday, there were a total of 3,071 fatalities, which increased the country's overall death toll to 289,283, Xinhua news agency reported citing figures issued by the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE).

The overall caseload as of Thursday morning stood at 5,379,574, according to the CSSE.

The two tallies account for the world's highest, making the US the hardest-hit country by the pandemic.

On Tuesday, a panel meeting of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) decided that healthcare personnel and residents of long-term care facilities will be the first groups to receive Covid-19 vaccines across the country.

More than 240,000 health care workers have been infected and 858 have died so far due to the disease, according to the CDC.