The United States now has the highest coronavirus death toll in the world with more than 20,000 fatalities, according to various virus trackers.
It has eclipsed Italy’s toll with many health experts saying the real numbers may even be higher since testing is limited.
By afternoon on Saturday, the United States had at least 20,064 coronavirus deaths, according to statistics website Worldometers. Italy had 19,468 deaths with about 152,271 coronavirus infections.
The United States also has more than half a million infections with less than 30,000 people who have fully recovered, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
More than 2000 people died from COVID-19 in the United States on Friday alone, the highest daily death toll recorded so far by any country.
According to statistics site Worldometers, at least 2035 people died from the coronavirus on Friday, even as daily new cases continued to rise.
Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, the epicenter of the crisis in the United States, announced 783 people died from coronavirus on Friday.
Some experts are predicting that the United States may see cases peak by next Friday and then begin to witness the flattening of the curve.
However, recent trends suggest that cases were still going up and the peak may be weeks or many months away.
On Friday alone, there were more than 33,000 new cases in the United States, and there has been no clear sign the curve was flattening.
Simon Ateba is Chief White House Correspondent for Today News Africa. Simon covers President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, the U.S. government, the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other financial and international institutions in Washington D.C. and New York City.