The United States overtakes Italy in total number of coronavirus deaths

The United States has overtaken Italy as the country with the most coronavirus deaths worldwide even though experts on the White House from the coronavirus task force say that the pandemic is starting to level across the country.

So far more than 525,000 people have tested positive for Covid-19 since the outbreak started and more than 20,000 have died - the highest number of deaths out of any country in the world. Globally, at least 108,000 people have died from coronavirus-related illnesses and more than 1.7 million have been diagnosed with the virus.

While the worldwide numbers are high, it is believed that the true figures could be even higher due to testing shortages, unreported cases and suspicions that some governments are hiding the scope of their outbreak in their country.

Countries with more Covid-19 deaths

At the current rate the United States could reach 30,000 coronavirus deaths by the end of next week while Italy has reported a total of 19,468 and Spain 16,480. Here is the death toll across the world since the outbreak started in China in December.