US surpasses Italy's coronavirus death toll

• The US surpassed Italy's coronavirus death toll on Saturday, to become the country with the most recorded coronavirus deaths.
• The US has 18,860 confirmed deaths as of Saturday, while Italy has 18,849, per Johns Hopkins University.
• That's a grim statistic by any account, though the US has five times Italy's population.
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The US has the highest death toll from the coronavirus globally, surpassing Italy on Saturday.

The death toll from the coronavirus in the US hit 18,860 on Saturday, with 5,820 of those deaths concentrated in New York City, per data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

As of Saturday, Italy - the previous epicenter of the global pandemic - record 18,849 deaths with 147,577 cases. The US has recorded 503,594 confirmed COVID-19 cases, ahead of Spain with 161,852 cases.

New York, the epicenter of the US's outbreak, has 161,807 confirmed cases alone with 8,627 recorded deaths.

While the death toll in the US is staggering by any account, it's important to note that the US has over 328 million people, compared to Italy's population of just over 60 million people - the US's population is over five times larger.

Still, the US has a long way to go into containing the outbreak and reopening the country. The US federal guidelines on business closures and social distancing measures extend to April 30.

President Trump, for his part, has pushed policymakers to reopen the country as soon as possible, with an eye toward jump-starting a sluggish economy teetering on the brink of recession.

The US surpassed China's case total on March 26.

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