US surpasses China, Italy in number of COVID-19 cases with more than 82,000 reported

The United States has officially exceeded China and Italy in the number of COVID-19 cases, now becoming the country with the most reported novel coronavirus cases in the world.

According to an ongoing tally conserved by John Hopkins University, the U.S. had 82,404 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of Thursday evening. Meanwhile, China had 81, 782, and Italy had 80,589. The news comes a day after the global infection count passed the half-a-million threshold.

The number of deaths from the U.S. has surpassed 1,000, a horrid milestone for a global outbreak that has taking away many lives and creating havoc on economies and daily routines of life. According to John Hopkins’ running count, the worldwide death toll has climbed past 23,000.

Practically about 3.3 million Americans applied for unemployment last week – nearly five times the previous record set in 1982. The flow of the weekly application is a strong representation of the damage the pandemic affecting the economy. The number of layoffs may increase as the U.S. economy falls into a recession with revenue collapsing at restaurants, hotels, movie theaters, gyms, and airlines.

Spanish and Italian medical workers have reach breaking point as the virus wages a bitter wages of attrition against health care workers across the globe. On Thursday, Italy reported 6,153 new coronavirus infections, bringing to country’s total to 80, 539 cases, as many as China.