The United States has now surpassed China to become the nation with most COVID-19 cases in the world, as reported by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.. The US now has 85,300 confirmed cases of covid-19, But with 1,295 COVID-19-linked deaths, the US death toll lags behind China (3,292 ), Italy (8,215) and Spain (4,365).
On a national scale the tally grew over 10,000 cases in less than five hours. While the state of New York has become the epicentre of the country’s outbreak with 37,802 confirmed cases, New Jersey and California have reported 6,876 and 3,802 cases, respectively.
Confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide reached 531,860 with 24,057 deaths, according to the CSSE.
In the meantime, almost 3.3 million Americans filed for unemployment previous week as the virus shuttered businesses and halted normal life across large swaths of US. The unprecedented number of Americans filed a claim for jobless aid – a nearly fivefold increase over the previous weekly record set in 1982.
Early on Thursday, the Senate has passed an record $2 trillion relief package to help workers, businesses and the severely strained health care system survive the epidemic.
