As the World Health Organization warned earlier this week, the U.S. has become the epicenter of the virus reporting more cases than any other country with a record-time increase.

Iran Press/America: The United States surpassed China in the number of infected people with COVID-19 Thursday, as the North American nation reported 81,864 cases. 

As the World Health Organization warned earlier this week, the U.S. has become the epicenter of the virus reporting more cases than any other country with a record-time increase. China's figures reached its max with over 81,000 cases but since last week have reported two-digit increases; Italy follows third with about 80,000.

“We are now seeing a very large acceleration in cases in the U.S. So it does have that potential,” WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said, adding that infections had greatly increased.

On Thursday, the U.S. tallied over 13,000 cases in one day and in total nearly 1,100 deaths. The hardest-hit state continues to be New York with over 37,700 cases alone. 

While the state's coronavirus deaths spiked to 385, with 100 new deaths recorded in a single day. Governor Andrew Cuomo warned residents on Thursday that the state's situation was increasingly dire. 

New York's hospitals will be overwhelmed under almost any realistic scenario in the coronavirus outbreak and authorities are adding capacity wherever possible to meet soaring demand, Cuomo said.

“And since we still have a large number of people on ventilators for a long period of time, the experts expect that number (of deaths) to continue to increase,” the governor added.

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