The United States—which now has more confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus than anywhere else in the world—has recorded 85,991 cases as of Friday morning, and 1,296 people have lost their lives. The figures come from Johns Hopkins University, which is keeping track of the coronavirus outbreak around the world. Globally, confirmed cases of the virus have risen above half a million to 542,417 and 24,354 people have died. Italy looks likely to soon overtake China with the second most cases. China has confirmed 81,828 cases compared to Italy’s 80,589, but China’s rate of new infections has slowed down dramatically over the past two weeks. The next three worse outbreaks are all in Europe—Spain has recorded 57,786 cases, followed by Germany with 47,278, and France on 29,567.
