The U.S. has overtaken China as the country with the most cases in the world of the novel coronavirus, marking a new milestone in the fight against the global pandemic.
China had held the top spot since the deadly virus began spreading there in December.There were 82,404 confirmed infections across America, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The first case in the U.S.—a man in Washington state who had recently traveled to Wuhan, China—was reported on Jan. 21. Within six weeks, the U.S. began to see a surge in new infections and the country’s first deaths.
New York is the center of the pandemic in the U.S., with its 37,802 infections accounting for nearly half of all cases in the country and tens of thousands more than any other state. The New York City metro area accounts for 35% of all new cases in the U.S., Deborah Birx, response coordinator for the White House’s coronavirus task force, said in a briefing Thursday.
By contrast, 19 states have fewer than 200 confirmed cases, Dr. Birx said.
The Trump administration is planning to issue guidelines categorizing counties across the nation as high-risk, medium-risk or low-risks, aiming to help state and local authorities decide whether to tighten or relax social-distancing measures designed to help slow infections.
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