In the span of a month, the coronavirus pandemic has radically soared to disturbing heights in the U.S. – from a fewer than 100 confirmed cases and two deaths as of March 1 to over 215,000 infections on Thursday, data from worldometers.info showed.
More than 5, 000 people have died from the virus in the U.S.
Even if all of the social distancing guidelines are followed “perfectly,” health experts in the country believe the death toll in the nation could still reach 100,000 to 200,000.
The U.S. already has the highest number of reported infections in the world, nearly a quarter of the global total and President Donald Trump on Wednesday said the nation should brace for “a very very difficult upcoming two weeks”.
New York is now the epicenter of COVID-19 in the U.S. and the entire world.
Over 83,000 are now infected in New York, a city of over 18 million people, almost half of the total cases reported in the U.S.
As of the time of reporting, over 2,000 people have died in the city, up from 965 on Sunday morning.
Globally, confirmed cases are gearing towards a million threshold as more than 935,000 infections have been reported. More than 47,000 people have died.
In Nigeria, 174 people have tested positive to the virus while two have died.