With the death toll from coronavirus surpassing 20,000, the United States has now overtaken Italy to have the highest number of the reported fatalities from the deadly virus in the world. The grim milestone comes shortly after the US became the first nation to record more than 2,000 virus deaths in a single day. According to the latest figures, the reported cases of infections in the US are 519,453, with 20,071 deaths. In Italy, where the number of confirmed new cases has trended down for many days, the death toll reached 19,468. Meanwhile, the number of confirmed cases has surpassed 1.7 million worldwide with more than 107,000 deaths. Of the deaths reported on Friday, 783 occurred in New York state, bringing the statewide death toll to 8,627. Speaking to reporters, the governor of New York Andrew Cuomo, however, said on Saturday the state's death toll appeared to be stabilizing. "That is not an all-time high, and you can see that the number is somewhat stabilizing but it is stabilizing at a horrific rate," Cuomo said. "These are just incredible numbers depicting incredible loss and pain." "The number of hospitalizations appears to have hit an apex, and the apex appears to be a plateau," the governor said, where numbers will level out for a period before dropping. The hospitalization rate is also down, Cuomo said, as are the number of intensive-care admissions. "Still people getting infected," he said, "still people going into the hospital, but again, a lower rate of increase." New York state has become the epicenter of the outbreak in the US, recording more than 180,000 of the country's estimated 520,000 cases. Dr. Anthony Fauci, US infectious diseases chief, has said the country is "starting to see the leveling off and coming down" of cases and deaths but says mitigation efforts such as social distancing should not be pulled back yet. — Agencies
