The outbreak of COVID-19, the disease caused by a novel coronavirus, hit a grim milestone Thursday afternoon: there have now been more than one million cases worldwide.
Hardest-hit so far is the United States, according to numbers compiled by researchers at Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. had 236,339 confirmed cases late Thursday, around twice as many as the next-highest country, Italy.
The outbreak, which began in China at the end of 2019, has since spread to nearly every country on the planet. While China was the hardest-hit country at first, particularly the province of Hubei and city of Wuhan, the disease spread at first to neighbouring countries. [ Sign up for our Health IQ newsletter for the latest coronavirus updates ] Then, with