United States surpasses grim milestone of 5 million confirmed coronavirus cases

The United States has surpassed 5 million coronavirus cases as the country now represents approximately a quarter of worldwide cases.

The United States has surpassed 5 million coronavirus cases as the country now represents approximately a quarter of worldwide cases.

More than 56,000 new cases of Covid-19 were reported on Sunday with over 1,000 deaths as the virus continues to surge across the country.

Over 162,000 Americans have now died from the virus in just over six months.

Meanwhile, the country hit second-hardest by the virus – Brazil – has exceeded 100,000 deaths and three million confirmed cases as the world nears 20 million total cases, according to Johns Hopkins University coronavirus tracker.

President Donald Trump has blamed the record-high cases in the US on expanded testing. However, data shows that wide-scale testing is not the sole cause for the country’s staggering case count.

More telling than confirmed case count – which can be explained by increased testing – is a country’s positivity rate – the percentage of confirmed cases in those tested.

The US is currently experiencing a 7.5% positivity rate showing that the virus is still being transmitted high levels across the country. As a baseline, the World Health Organization said countries with adequate testing should be hovering around a 5% positivity rate.

‘The fact that the test positivity rate is increasing (in the US) while we’re increasing the number of tests is extremely strong evidence that the surge in cases is real,’ Dr Justin Lessler, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University, said.

Many states are reporting positivity rates higher than the country’s average, including Arizona, which currently has a 13.4% positivity rate, down from the previous week’s 15.5% positivity rate.

Florida, one of the states currently experiencing the highest surges of the virus, is reporting a 17.5% positivity rate after hovering above 17% for weeks. The state has confirmed more than 527,000 cases of the virus and at least 8,108 have died as of Sunday.

Over 40% of the cases in the United States have come from five states alone: California, which has the most cases in the country, Florida, Texas, New York and Georgia.

New York, which had once been the country’s epicenter for the virus, has since been surpassed by multiple states that have suffered spikes in the recent months. The state, which has so far reported more than 32,000 deaths, is now reporting a positivity rate of just .93%.

‘Despite increasing infection rates across the country and our region, we continue to see our numbers hold at low levels,’ Governor Andrew Cuomo said Saturday.

‘All thanks to the hard work of New Yorkers to change their behavior and our data-driven, phased reopening.’

Breaking News. More to follow.