US registers half a million COVID-19 cases; first country in world to record over 2,000 deaths in a day

As the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak continues to spread, the United States has now become the first country in the world to record more than 2,000 deaths due to the virus in one day. According to the Coronavirus Resource Center at the John Hopkins University, the US has registered 2,108 fatalities in the past 24 hours.

A report by the AFP news agency elaborates on the worsening COVID-19 situation in the country. The US has now recorded 18,586 deaths, a close second to Italy, which has recorded 18,849 deaths, the most fatalities in the world so far. The US has also recorded more than half a million confirmed cases, with over 35,000 fresh cases in the past 24 hours.

The US has led the world in the number of infections since the end of March and with more than a third of all officially declared cases globally, it threatens to overtake Europe, which has recorded over 850,000 cases.

While the US has the most number of cases in the world (nearly 29% of total cases), Italy tops the death toll chart with 18.7% of total deaths. Spain is second in terms of the number of cases (158,273), it is third behind Italy and the US in the number of deaths.

In the US, New York state is world-affected with more than 6,000 deaths out of which 5,820 have been recorded in New York City alone. Out of the total COVID-19 cases in the US, 26,645 have recovered from the disease.

Globally, 376,200 infected patients have recovered.