WASHINGTON: The US has hit a grim milestones after the country's overall coronavirus caseload has surpassed the 9.6 million mark, according to the Johns Hopkins University
The US is currently the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 9,604,077 and 234,904, respectively, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed in its latest update.
The country makes up for nearly 20 per cent of the global caseload and death toll, respectively.
Texas recently surpassed California to become the state with the most cases, with the total infection tally at 960,583, reports Xinhua news agency.
California reported 951,989 cases, and Florida registered 821,123, followed by New York with 515,815.
Other states with over 210,000 cases include Illinois, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arizona, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan, according to the CSSE.
The US reported 102,831 new cases on Wednesday, the first time it recorded more than 100,000 daily cases since the pandemic began, according to the Johns Hopkins University.
As the virus has continued to rage across the country, some states and cities have started to enact new rules, including having mask mandates, imposing curfews, limiting capacity at stores, restaurants, and houses of worship.
Facing the skyrocketing cases in the US, Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said that that now is the time to develop a testing strategy to identify the silent epidemic of asymptomatic Covid-19 infections.
CDC said on its website that asymptomatic cases are "challenging to identify" because individuals do not know they are infected unless they are tested.
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington predicted a total of 399,163 coronavirus deaths in the US by February 1, 2021, based on current projection scenario.