The number of COVID-19 cases worldwide topped 500,000 as of Thursday noon, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University in the US. The fresh figure reached 510,108 cases with 22,993 deaths.
Outside China, the countries that reported over 10,000 cases included Italy, the US, Spain, Germany, Iran, France and Switzerland. Italy suffered the most deaths from the disease, which stood at 8,165, according to the CSSE, Xinhua reported.
It took around two days for the total number to jump from 400,000 to 500,000. Over 170 countries and regions have reported COVID-19 cases so far, the CSSE said.
US exceeds China with most COVID-19 cases worldwide
The US has reported 82,404 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of 6 pm., US Eastern Time on Thursday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University. The country has surpassed China to become the nation with most COVID-19 cases in the world, according to the CSSE.
The nationwide tally grew over 10,000 cases in less than five hours. The state of New York has become the epicentre of the country's outbreak with 37,802 cases reported. New Jersey and California have reported 6,876 and 3,802 cases, respectively, Xinhua reported citing the CSSE.
Total COVID-19-linked deaths in the US reached 1,178, while 281 of them occurred in New York City and 100 in Kings County of Washington state.
The Johns Hopkins University data showed that China (including the mainland and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan regions) reported 82,034 cases as of 6 pm Thursday US Eastern Time.
China's National Health Commission reported 81,285 confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland by the end of Wednesday Beijing Time. Meanwhile, 410 confirmed cases had been reported in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), 30 confirmed cases in the Macao SAR, and 235 in Taiwan.
