Coronavirus: Total US COVID-19 cases top 7.5M

The United States reached another grim milestone early Wednesday when the number of total novel coronavirus cases surpassed 7.5 million.

According to a Johns Hopkins University tally, total COVID-19 infections reached 7,500,964, accounting for 210,886 fatalities nationwide.

U.S. cases now account for more than 1-in-5 of the nearly 36 million COVID-19 infections reported worldwide.

India has recorded the second-highest number of cases, with nearly 6.7 million but fewer than half the U.S. deaths at 104,555. Meanwhile, Brazil, with nearly 5 million cases, has reported 147,494 COVID-19 deaths, and Russia has confirmed more than 1.2 million cases, resulting in 21,559 confirmed deaths.

Meanwhile, New Zealand currently has zero active coronavirus cases, but the country’s second outbreak will not be declared closed by its health ministry until there have been “no new cases for two incubation periods,” the agency stated Tuesday.