Coronavirus update: US cases climb to 200,000, reports say

Confirmed cases in country double within a week after US tops China and Italy with highest number of reported diagnoses

The number of reported cases of coronavirus in the US has topped 200,000, according to CNN's recording of nationwide cases.

At least 4,300 people have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, which also has counted roughly 200,000 Covid-19 cases.

The spike represents 20,000 newly identified cases in the US overnight.

New York remains the US epicentre for confirmed cases, which have reached more than 83,000 in the state.

Many of those cases are concentrated in the New York City area, which comprises more than half of the statewide total. Nearly 2,000 people in the state have died from the disease, with 400 additional deaths reported since Tuesday.

But other areas of the US are facing disproportionate rates of infection and deaths per capita. In Washington, which was the first state to report an outbreak in the US, deaths have reached at least 150.

The death tolls in Michigan and New Orleans also surged past 100 this week, as health systems across the country prepare for a surge in sicker patients requiring ventilator support while waiting for critically needed resources from federal emergency relief.

Last week, the US eclipsed hard-hit China and Italy with the highest number of cases when the total reached 82,000.

Within a week, the number of confirmed cases had more than doubled.

After claiming for weeks that the virus would subside as he pushed for the US to "re-open" this month against warnings from health officials, Donald Trump's administration has predicted that the US death toll could reach between 100,000 and 240,000, with deaths peaking within the next two weeks.

On Tuesday, the president said: "This could be a hell of a bad two weeks. This is going to be a very bad two, and maybe three weeks. This is going to be three weeks like we've never seen before."

He previously had falsely claimed to the public that impacts of Covid-19 were similar or no worse than an annual flu outbreak. He has since backtracked on those claims but did not address his error.

Global cases have reached more than 900,000, according to Johns Hopkins.