The United States on Thursday took the grim title of the country with the most coronavirus infections, edging out Italy, which has reported the most deaths, and China, where the virus was first detected in December in the metropolis of Wuhan.
At least 82,404 Americans have been infected with COVID-19, a running countby Johns Hopkins University researchers showed Thursday evening.
China, where the outbreak began, had 81,782 and Italy had 80,589.
New York accounts for a large slice of the US cases, with at least 37,258 reported and 385 deaths.
Other states with high case counts include New Jersey with 6,876, California with 3,894, Michigan with 2,856, and Washington with 2,580, according to local health departments.
The US population is around 330 million — a fraction of China’s is 1.4 billion, but higher than the 60 million in Italy, which became the epicenter of the pandemic in Europe.
More than a half-million people worldwide have caught the illness. At least 120,000 have recovered.
