US Now Has Most Confirmed Virus Cases (82K) in World

The United States has officially become the hardest-hit country in the world by the global coronavirus pandemic, confirming a world-high 82,285-plus coronavirus cases, surpassing China, where it originated.

"I think it's a tribute to our testing," President Donald Trump told reporters Thursday at the coronavirus task force daily briefing.

"We're testing a tremendous number of people," he added, questioning the data coming out of China.

The data is complied by Johns Hopkins University and Worldometer, which culls the data from a variety of sources.

While the data milestone is a potential mark against the U.S. response to the pandemic, it does show the U.S. has been conducting more tests than any country in the world. Vice President announced more than 552,000 tests have been conducted in the U.S. to date. That is a 14.9% rate of positives for every coronavirus test administered, although that includes some people who have had the virus and needed subsequent tests to be cleared of infection.

Also, the U.S. death total of 1,177 is the sixth-highest in the world, suggesting the U.S. healthcare system is helping keep Americans alive at a higher rate than European countries.