U.S. death toll spirals amid rush to build field hospitals, find supplies

Medical students and physician assistants from Touro University Nevada wait to screen people in a temporary parking lot shelter at Cashman Center, with spaces marked for social distancing to help slow the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. March 30, 2020. REUTERS/Steve Marcus

NEW YORK/ LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The U.S. government raced on Tuesday to build hundreds of makeshift hospitals near major cities as healthcare systems were pushed to capacity, and sometimes beyond, by the coronavirus pandemic.

Even as millions of Americans hunkered down in their homes under strict "stay-at-home" orders, the death toll, as tallied by Reuters, shot up by more than 850 on Tuesday, by far the most for a single day.