New York, Nov 26 (IANS): US Covid-19 deaths surpassed 2,60,000 on Wednesday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

With the national caseload topping 12.6 million, the death toll across the US rose to 2,60,322 as of 11:25 a.m. local time (1625 GMT), according to the CSSE data.

New York state reported 34,362 fatalities, at the top of the US state-level death toll list. Texas recorded the second most deaths, standing at 21,245. The states of California, Florida and New Jersey all confirmed more than 16,000 deaths, the tally showed.

States with more than 9,000 fatalities also include Illinois, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Michigan, the Xinhua news agency reported.

The US remains the nation hit the worst by the pandemic, with the world's highest caseload and death toll, accounting for more than 18 per cent of global deaths.

The US reported 2,146 daily deaths associated with Covid-19 on Tuesday, the highest since May, the CSSE chart showed.

An updated model forecast by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington projected a total of 4,70,974 Covid-19 deaths in the US by March 1, 2021, based on current projection scenario.