Undertakers wearing faces mask and overalls unload a coffin out of a hearse on March 16, at the Monumental cemetery of Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy. Piero Cruciatti/AFP/Getty Images

More than 10,000 people have died after contracting the novel coronavirus, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

The grim milestone comes nearly three months after the virus was first identified in Wuhan, the capital of China's Hubei province.

Since then, the virus has spread to every continent except Antarctica and infected nearly 250,000 people worldwide, by JHU's estimates. The university is tracking cases reported by the World Health Organization and additional sources.��

The situation in Europe and the United States is getting increasingly dire. Italy's death toll surpassed that of mainland China yesterday, and according to Johns Hopkins, the country has now recorded more than 41,000 cases. Infections in the US surpassed 10,000 on Thursday, up from fewer than 100 at the beginning of the month. There may be even more, as not all patients can be tested because the US is currently dealing with a severe shortage of testing equipment.

Progress at pandemic ground zero: Authorities in mainland China appear to be making notable progress in stopping the virus from spreading domestically -- no new local infections have been reported for two days in a row and 71,150 patients have recovered and been discharged from hospital, according to the country's National Health Commission.