Confirmed coronavirus cases in the US pass 500,000: JHU

The coronavirus has now infected over 500,000 people in the U.S. on Friday night, constituting almost one-third of all cases across the globe, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. 

As of 9:25 p.m. Eastern Time, the U.S. has recorded 500,399 cases of the coronavirus disease, or Covid-19, of which 174,481 were in New York, the data showed.

The virus, which emerged in Wuhan, China, in December, has since spread to more than 1.5 million people in almost every country around the world. On Friday, the number of deaths caused by the coronavirus worldwide surged past the 100,000 mark, doubling in nearly a week. 

New York state is the epicenter of the outbreak in the country and has reported more cases than Italy, Spain, France and Germany. However, the state has shown some signs of improvement after reporting its first negative net change in intensive care admissions on Thursday for the first time since the coronavirus crisis began. 

President Donald Trump has also said the number of projected deaths is now “substantially under” what health officials initially predicted.

“We’ll see what it ends up being, but it looks like we’re headed to a number substantially below the 100,000 that would be the low mark, and I hope that bears out,” Trump said. 

Here’s a snapshot of the numbers of cases around the world.

• Global cases: At least 1,696,139
• Global deaths: At least 102,669
• Most cases reported: United States (500,399), Spain (158,273), Italy (147,577), Germany (122,171), France (125,931)