ALMOST half of the country's coronavirus fatalities are black Americans.

The shocking tally has emerged just two days after coronavirus expert Dr Fauci warned that the community are being disproportionately hit by the disease.

Nearly 3,300 of the nation’s 13,000 deaths thus far, about 42 per cent, were black, according to an Associated Press analysis.

African Americans account for roughly 21 per cent of the total population in the areas covered by the analysis.

Among the cities where black residents have been hard-hit: New York, Detroit, New Orleans, Chicago and Milwaukee.

On Tuesday, Dr Fauci warned that the "nasty numbers" were due to the black American community having underlying health conditions.

Fauci said: "Sometimes, when you're in the middle of a crisis, like we are now with the coronavirus, it really does shine a very bright light on some of the real weaknesses and foibles in our society.

"We have a difficult problem of exacerbation of a health disparity.

"We have known literally forever that diseases like diabetes, hypertension, obesity and asthma are disproportionately afflicting the minority populations, particularly the African-American."

Courtney Cgoburn, an associate professor at the Columbia University School of Social Work, told AP: “The rate at which black people are dying, compared to whites, is really just astounding.

“There are patterns at this intersection of race and socioeconomic status that make it very clear this is just not a story about poverty.”

The news comes as the US death toll currently stands at 16,267.

The number of confirmed cases in the country has now soared to at least 454,304.

However, 24,962 people have recovered from the deadly disease.

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