US tops two million coronavirus cases

The coronavirus has infected nearly two million people overall in the United States, and in the past 24 hours has caused 1,082 fatalities in the country, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University on June 10.    

The world's leading economic power is by far the country most affected by the pandemic, both in terms of the number of reported deaths -- 112,833 -- and the number of diagnosed cases, which stood at 1,999,313 at 8:30 pm on June 10 (0030 GMT on June 11).    

The U.S. continues to record around 20,000 new cases of COVID-19 every day, and is struggling to come down from that plateau as the level of infections wax and wane in different parts of the country.     

In Texas and North Carolina, for example, there are currently more COVID-19 patients hospitalized than there were a month ago.     

With half a million tests performed per day, the country is the world champion in screening per capita.     

According to an average of 11 epidemiological models conducted by researchers at the University of Massachusetts, the number of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. is expected to approach 130,000 by July 4, Independence Day.

More than 70,000 people have died from coronavirus in Latin America as the pandemic sweeps through the region, putting growing pressure on an already stretched healthcare system.    

Central and South America has emerged as the new hotspot for a disease that has infected 7.4 million people around the globe. More than 415,000 of them have died.    

In Brazil, which accounts for well over half of the deaths in the region, hospitals were struggling to cope with the influx of sick and dying.

"Nursing was always an overworked profession, and this pandemic has just made things worse," nurse...