US now leads the world in confirmed coronavirus cases, surpassing China and Italy

The United States now has the most confirmed coronavirus cases in the world, surpassing Italy and China.

The number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. surpassed 82,400 on Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University. Already, over 1,100 people have died from the virus, officials say.

Italy had 80,589 confirmed cases while China had 81,782.

Still, the coronavirus has been most deadly in Italy, with over 8,000 deaths blamed on the virus. The U.S. had 1,178 deaths. China had 3,291.

Spain has the second most deaths in the world with over 4,100.

During a news conference Thursday evening, President Donald Trump attributed the high numbers to what he called a “tremendous” amount testing being done across the country, while casting doubt on the accuracy of China’s figures.

“It’s a tribute to the amount of testing we’re doing,” Trump said. “We’re doing a tremendous amount of testing.”

A week ago, the U.S. had roughly 11,500 confirmed cases.

While the pandemic has been deadly, it’s also slammed the economy with a volatile stock market and record-breaking unemployment numbers. The Senate passed a $2 trillion stimulus package Wednesday night, which proposes direct payments to many Americans.

Over half a million people have confirmed cases of coronavirus, and more than 23,000 have died from the disease.

This story was originally published March 26, 2020 at 3:58 PM with the headline "US now leads the world in confirmed coronavirus cases, surpassing China and Italy."