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The United States now has the most coronavirus cases in the world with 82,404 infections and more than 1,000 deaths as of Thursday March 26. China, where the outbreak began, has 81,782 and Italy has 80,589.

Italy is still the hardest hit country in terms of deaths with more than 8,000 fatalities. China, where the pandemic began in December, has reported more than 3,000 deaths.

More than a half-million people worldwide have caught the illness. At least 120,000 have recovered.

The latest figures come after the World Health Organization this week predicted a grim outlook for the US, saying that the country would quickly become the global epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic given the ‘very large acceleration’ of confirmed infections.

New York on Thursday recorded 100 coronavirus deaths in just 24 hours, bringing the state total to 385, as the number of fatal cases across the United States increased to more than 1,000.

New York, which is the epicenter of the US outbreak with 50 percent of the country’s total confirmed cases, now as 385 deaths and more than 37,000 infections.

There are 281 deaths in New York City and more than 21,000 infections.

Louisiana is now emerging as the possible next epicenter of the US outbreak after infections rose by 30 percent in 24 hours. That state recorded 1,800 infections and 65 deaths by Thursday. Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans – the area that accounts for about 70 percent of the state’s cases – has been blamed for the outbreak there.

New Jersey has 4,400 confirmed cases and 62 deaths, while California has more than 3,000 cases and 67 deaths. Washington state, which was initially the epicenter following an outbreak at a Seattle nursing home, now has 2,600 confirmed cases and 133 deaths.

It comes as new research showed the outbreak could lead to more than 80,000 deaths in the US within the next four months and overwhelm hospital capacity nationally as soon as early April even if social distancing measures are respected.

Forecasters at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington’s School of Medicine have predicted that during the epidemic peak – set for some point in April – as many as 2,300 patients could die every day.

This was the case even if the population adhered to strict social distancing measures.

Their predictions came after analyzing the latest COVID-19 data, includ hospitalisation and mortality rates, as well as patient date in terms of age, gender and pre-existing health problems.

The analysis warned that based on current trends, demand for both ICU beds and ventilators would far exceed capacity for COVID-19 patients as early as the second week of April, Dailymail reported.

In collaboration with the Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization, the Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering, updates the daily Coronavirus statistics worldwide through this link