US passes 5 million coronavirus cases

The United States has recorded more than 5 million cases of the coronavirus, a tracker from Johns Hopkins University showed on Sunday.

The death toll in the country has passed 162,000 and looks set to continue to rise, with some models predicting it may near 290,000 before the pandemic is brought under control.

After managing to bring down the rate of new cases, the country saw a surge of infections across the south and south-west in mid-June, which persisted for weeks.

California on Friday passed 10,000 fatalities since the start of the pandemic, as the most populous state in the nation became one of the new hotspots. The western state had managed to contain much of the virus earlier this year, but has seen a strong resurgence.

The real number of infections is likely higher than the confirmed statistics, as testing capacity has often lagged behind the pace of the disease.

While recent weeks saw a sharp improvement in testing, the last few days have seen the number of tests administered decline.