WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th March, 2020) The US plans to begin reporting the number of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) cases and deaths every weekday at noon, with the first report on Monday showing 3,487 cases with 68 deaths, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a press release on Monday.
"Data include both confirmed and presumptive positive cases of COVID-19 reported to CDC or tested at CDC since January 21, 2020, with the exception of testing results for persons repatriated to the United States from Wuhan, China and Japan. State and local public health departments are now testing and publicly reporting their cases," the release said.
A separate estimate by the Johns Hopkins University disease tracking website put the total cases of infection with the COVID-19 at 4,093, higher than 3,487 in the CDC report, putting the United States at No. 8 behind China, Italy, Iran, Spain, South Korea, Germany and France, and the number of deaths at 73.
However, media reported that the number of deaths from the COVID-19 infection is even higher and stands at 74.
The global total surged to 175,274 cases on Monday, with the rest of the world surpassing China's 81,032 cases for the first time, according to Johns Hopkins University.
