Confirmed US coronavirus cases surpass 2 million mark

The number of confirmed coronavirus infections in the United States topped 2 million on Wednesday, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

The pandemic has claimed the lives of more than 112,900 people in the United States, which leads the world in the number of confirmed infections with 2,000,464, according to the latest count from the university, based in Baltimore, Maryland.

The US continues to record around 20,000 new cases of Covid-19 every day and is struggling to come down from that plateau as the level of infections wax and wane in different parts of the country.

In Texas and North Carolina, for example, there are currently more Covid-19 patients hospitalised than there were a month ago.

With half a million tests performed per day, the country is the world champion in screening per capita.

According to an average of 11 epidemiological models conducted by researchers at the University of Massachusetts, the number of Covid-19 deaths in the US is expected to approach 130,000 by July 4, Independence Day.