CNN reporter Sara Sidner broke down in tears live on air in an emotional moment during a report on surging coronavirus deaths across Los Angeles.

Ms Sidner fought back tears as she addressed the camera at the end of a report on Tuesday regarding a grieving California family forced to have a funeral service in a car park, for a loved one who died from Covid-19.

“You know this is the tenth hospital that I have been in,” she began, before pausing to hold back tears and then attempting to begin the sentence again before apologising.

“This is the tenth hospital I have been in and to see the way that these families have to live after this and the heartache that goes so far and so wide, it's really hard to take," she said.

Funeral homes and local hospitals in Los Angeles continue to be overwhelmed with the Covid-19 surge, with the county having reported 12,617 new cases of the disease on Monday.

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“No apology needed,” anchor Alisyn Camerota replied to the correspondent when the camera split back to the CNN studio. She added: “We’ve been watching your reporting on the ground throughout this horrific year and we have all been struck by the grief, the collective grief, that all of us are in.”

“It's just not OK. It's not OK what we're doing to each other. These families should not be going through this. No family should be going through this."

In an update on Twitter following the report, Ms Sidner said she was “still not okay after seeing the heartbreak in the City of Angels because of #coronavirus”.

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“I know that being there to see the destruction it’s doing to families is small in comparison to the pain the families feel," she said.