The US has passed 100,000 deaths in the coronavirus outbreak, figures from Johns Hopkins University show.
It has seen more deaths than any other country, while its 1.69 million confirmed infections account for about 30% of the worldwide total.
The first US infection was reported in Washington state on 21 January.
Globally there have been 5.6 million people recorded as infected and 353,414 deaths since the virus emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.
With the US death toll currently at 100,271, BBC says it is almost the same as the number of American servicemen and women killed in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan over 44 years of fighting.
Twenty states reported a rise in new cases for the week ending on Sunday, according to a Reuters study.
The caseload remains stubbornly high in a number of metropolitan areas, including Chicago, Los Angeles and suburban Washington DC.
The US states of North Carolina, Wisconsin and Arkansas are also seeing a steady rise in cases.
Some hard-hit states are seeing a drop in death rates, including New York, where 21,000 residents have died.
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During the peak of the crisis in the city, the daily death toll was in the hundreds. Hospitals were overwhelmed and makeshift morgues were built outside health facilities.
President Donald Trump has insisted that without his administration’s actions the death toll would be far higher, though critics have accused him of a slow response.
On Tuesday, he said the fatalities could have been 25 times higher.
Initially, the president downplayed the pandemic, comparing it to the seasonal flu. Back in February he said the US had the virus “under control” and that by April it could “miraculously go away”.
He predicted 50,000-60,000 deaths, then 60,000-70,000 and then “substantially under 100,000”.
Mr. Trump also argued on 20 May it was “a badge of honour” that the US had the world’s highest number of confirmed infections “because it means our testing is much better”.
A study from Columbia University in New York suggested about 36,000 fewer people would have died if the US had acted sooner.
With nearly 39 million Americans out of work during the pandemic, the US is however, pressing ahead state by state with reopening the coronavirus-frozen economy, even as the death toll continues to tick upwards.
All 50 states have begun to ease COVID-19 rules in some form.
BBC
