By rising above 100,000 confirmed cases (see our post from 21:53), the US outbreak has reached a grim new milestone in the global pandemic.

Earlier this week, confirmed American cases jumped above that of China, where the outbreak began in December last year.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said the US had the potential to become the new epicentre of the coronavirus crisis, and that appears to have been realised.

In recent days, cases have increased exponentially in the US (as the chart by Johns Hopkins University demonstrates below).

In just short of two weeks, the university's tracker shows that cases have surged from the low thousands (4,600 on 16 March) to a six figure number.

Most of those cases are in the states of Washington, California and New York.

On Thursday, US President Donald Trump said the rise in cases was "a tribute to the amount of testing that we're doing".

You can read our explainer on the accuracy of President Trump's claims about testing.