According to a database kept by Johns Hopkins University, at least 50,000 people in the United States have now died of the novel coronavirus.
Confirmed cases of the virus in the U.S. total nearly 900,000. The U.S. leads the world in the total number of cases and deaths linked to the virus.
New York City remains the epicenter of the outbreak in America. The city accounts for about 17 percent of all the cases throughout the country, with at least 145,000. At least 16,000 people have died of COVID-19 in the city.
New Jersey ranks second in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases with just over 100,000. Massachusetts (46,000), California (39,000), Pennsylvania (38,000) and Illinois (36,000) round out the top five.
According to Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation , a model routinely used by the White House, the U.S. is past the point of peak resource use and daily death count. That model projects that about 67,000 Americans will die of the coronavirus through August. The IHME appears to project fewer deaths than other similar models.
As key indicators like new hospitalizations and intubations appear to be leveling off country-wide, states have begun considering lifting "Stay At Home" orders or similar restrictions that have kept non-essential workers off the job. About 60 percent of Americans are concerned that still will move too quickly in lifting such orders, according to an
NBC News poll.
