US hits 600,000 coronavirus cases as Covid-19 deaths top 25,000

The United States has diagnosed more than 600,000 cases of coronavirus, with over 25,000 people known to have died with Covid-19. That grim figure of 603,694 diagnoses was reached on Tuesday afternoon as states across the US began updating their daily figures. New York is still by-far the worst hit state, with 202,265 coronavirus diagnoses, and 10,834 deaths. That came after the number of cases rose by 6,219 overnight, with 778 more people in the Empire State dying with Covid-19 on Monday.

Neighboring New Jersey is the second worst-affected state, with 68,824 coronavirus cases, up 4,240 in 24 hours. A total of 2,805 people died in the Garden State on Monday – 362 more than in the previous 24 hours.

Massachusetts currently sits in third place, with 26,867 coronavirus cases and 844 deaths, with Michigan and Pennsylvania also recording over 25,000 cases each. The United States case numbers have almost tripled since April, when the Centers for Disease Control reported 213,144 positive coronavirus test results.

America now has triple the number of coronavirus patients as the next worst-affected country, with the state of New York alone having more diagnoses than any other country on Earth. Spain is in second place, with 172,000 diagnoses and over 18,000 deaths. Italy sits in third place with 162,500 cases and just over 21,000 deaths. The US also has close to a third of the world’s 1,949,210 total confirmed cases

On Tuesday afternoon, Donald Trump met with people who have recovered from Covid-19 at the White House, and touted the apparent effectiveness of anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment for severe symptoms. President Trump also claimed that US scientists would soon devise an effective vaccine and cure for Covid-19. Experts including White House immunologist Dr Anthony Fauci warned that potential treatments need further tests to establish their effectiveness, and say a vaccine or cure is highly likely to take at least another 12-18 months.

China, where Covid-19 originated late last year, claims to have seen around 84,000 coronavirus diagnoses and just over 3,300 Covid-19 deaths. But US intelligence officials believe the country’s communist government lied about the statistics. They think the number of diagnoses in China, which has a population of 1.4billion, was many times the official number, and say that more than 40,000 people were likely killed by Covid-19.

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