US President Donald Trump takes a question as he addresses an East Room event highlighting Paycheck Protection Program loans for small businesses adversely affected by the coronavirus disease outbreak, at the White House in Washington, April 28, 2020. (Photo: Agencies)

As the United States moves closer to the grim milestone of its 1 million case of novel coronavirus, New York announced on Monday that it would cancel its Democratic presidential primary over pandemic fears, the first state in the country to make such a decision.

The decision came after Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders suspended his presidential campaign earlier this month, which "basically rendered the primary moot", the co-chair of the New York State Board of Elections, Douglas Kellner, told CNN.

"At a time when the goal is to avoid unnecessary social contact, our conclusion was that there was no purpose in holding a beauty contest primary that would marginally increase the risk to both voters and poll workers," Kellner said.

Sanders campaign adviser Jeff Weaver said in a statement, "The decision by the State of New York Board of Elections is an outrage, a blow to American democracy, and must be overturned by the (Democratic National Committee)."

"Just last week, (presumptive Democratic nominee for president Joe) Biden warned the American people that President Trump could use the current crisis as an excuse to postpone the election. Well, he now has a precedent, thanks to New York state."

US President Donald Trump on Monday dismissed allegations that he would try to delay the election as the US struggles to quell the pandemic.

"I never even thought of changing the date of the election. Why would I do that?" Trump said at the White House. "I look forward to that election, and that was just made-up propaganda. Not by him, but by some of the many people that are working" for Joe Biden, Trump said.

The president cannot by law unilaterally change the date of the general election, which is Nov 3.

Trump also said he expected to see a lot of US schools reopen after being shut down by the coronavirus pandemic.

"Many (state governors) are thinking about their school system," he said. "Not a long way to go in the school system right now, for this season, for this year, but I think you'll see a lot of schools open up."

"Even if it's for a very short period of time, I think it would be a good thing," Trump told reporters.

"Young people seem to do very well," he added in an apparent reference to studies showing that children usually do not get as sick from the virus as older people.

"So I know that there are some governors that aren't necessarily ready to open up their states, but they may be ready to open up their school systems," Trump said.

Schools around the country have closed because of the coronavirus pandemic and many have switched to online instruction.

Trump unveiled a plan to help states ramp up widespread testing for the coronavirus. He said the US has done 5.4 million tests for the coronavirus, which he said was "double" what any other country in the world has done.

"We want to get our country open, and testing is not going to be a problem at all," Trump said.

As of Monday morning, 965,933 COVID-19 cases had been confirmed in the US, along with54,877 deaths, a Johns Hopkins University tally showed.

According to a predictive model done by the University of Washington, which was often cited by White House officials and state public health authorities, the US death toll from the outbreak could exceed 74,000 by August.

Late on Monday, the university's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation model raised its projected US death toll to 74,073 by Aug 4, up from nearly 67,000 predicted a week ago, and 60,000 predicted two weeks ago.

Several states have eased restrictions on businesses, and more are ready to follow. Stay-at-home orders issued by governors and subsequent decisions to slowly reopen state economies have turned into highly charged political issues as the shutdowns have hammered the nation's economy.

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned on Monday that the pandemic remains "extremely dangerous", although many countries now are seeking to return to normal.

While saying the pandemic is "far from over", Tedros called on countries to continue aggressive tactics, urging countries to "find, isolate, test and treat all cases of COVID-19 and trace every contact, to ensure these declining trends continue".