US Covid-19 cases exceed 100,000 people, South Korea leads the world with testing

The US has kicked the number of cases of Covid-19 coronavirus over 100,000 people. As testing continues to expand rapidly, the US is seeing daily spikes of 10,000+ in recent days (18,294 in the past 24 hours). On March 20 there were 19,000 active cases recorded for the US.

The numbers are expected to continue to rise steadily in the coming weeks, but health officials maintain the number of newly identified cases is likely due to lack of testing in the weeks before.

Since the country’s first reported death on February 29, at least 1,693 people have died in the US, including three Thai nationals (in New York). Around the globe, more than 27,341 people have died (as of 7am Thai time).

worldometers.com/coronavirus

Cases have been reported in all 50 states across the US, as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and the US Virgin Islands. New York has by far the most reported cases, nearly half the country’s total, followed by New Jersey, California, Washington and Michigan.

The US-based Centres for Disease Control say that whilst the US has the most confirmed cases of the new virus, the country has also conducted more coronavirus tests than any other country.

The CDC has not published official numbers of nationwide tests, but Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, claimed this week that the US had conducted more than 370,000 tests.

But, with a population of about 330 million, the US isn’t leading the world in the number of tests conducted per capita. South Korea, a country of about 51 million, had tested more than 370,000 people as of yesterday. Italy, with a population of around 60 million, with the most coronavirus-related deaths (9,134), had tested more than 390,000 people up to yesterday, according to Italian health officials.

SOURCE: USA Today