The U.S. has overtaken Italy by becoming the country with the highest COVID-19 deaths in the world.
Reports by Johns Hopkins University, New York Times and Reuters news agency, all showed that the country has recorded no fewer than 20,506 COVID-19-related deaths.
With this record, Italy, which used to be ahead, has fallen one step behind with no fewer than 19,468 deaths as of Saturday afternoon.
On Friday, the U.S also became the first county in the world to record no fewer than 2,000 deaths in a single day.
As of Saturday evening, there were no fewer than 528,301 confirmed cases of the deadly virus in the US.
New York remains the U.S. epicentre with no fewer than 180,458 cases which represents 34 per cent of the total, and 8,627 deaths.
New Jersey, Michigan, Massachusetts, California, Pennsylvania and Louisiana follow with no fewer than 20,000 cases each, and 2,183, 1,391, 686, 629, 506 and 806 deaths respectively.
Public health experts have warned that the U.S’ death toll could reach 200,000 over the summer if stay-at-home orders are lifted after 30 days, NAN reports.
China, where the outbreak of COVID-19 allegedly began had its cases and deaths standing at 8,052 and 3,339 respectively.