U.S. reaches 100,000 confirmed coronavirus cases two months after start of outbreak

The United States became the first country in the world to surpass 100,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, according to updated figures from Johns Hopkins University.

Friday’s grim milestone comes a day after the U.S. surpassed China and Italy for the most cases in the world and beocming the new epicenter for COVID-19. Neither China or Italy have reached 90,000 cases as of Friday afternoon.

The first coronavirus case in the U.S. was reported in Washington state Jan. 21, according to McClatchy news. It wasn’t until March 2 when the country reached 100 confirmed cases, CNN reported.

There were about 18,000 confirmed cases a week ago, on March 20, in the the U.S.

As of 9 p.m. ET Friday, the U.S. had 101,657 cases, while Italy had 84,498 and China had 81,897.

Earlier this week, the World Health Organization warned the U.S. could become the next “virus epicenter” as cases soared, especially in New York.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday that the nation’s high numbers were due to an increase in testing.

“It’s a tribute to the amount of testing we’re doing,” the president said. “We’re doing a tremendous amount of testing.”

While the U.S. has the most confirmed cases in the world, death tolls are much higher elsewhere. As of Friday afternoon, more than 9,100 people have died in Italy from COVID-19 and nearly 5,000 have died in Spain, according to Johns Hopkins University. About 1,500 people have died in the U.S. from the virus, including more than 250 on Friday.

Nearly 600,000 people have contracted the coronavirus worldwide from COVID-19, which was first detected in Wuhan, China in December.

This story was originally published March 27, 2020 at 4:32 PM with the headline "U.S. reaches 100,000 confirmed coronavirus cases two months after start of outbreak."