US Coronavirus Death Toll Surpasses 3,000

The number of people in the U.S. who have died from the novel coronavirus has surpassed the 3,000 mark, according to data released late Monday by Johns Hopkins University.

The university's running tally counted 3,008 deaths and 163,429 cases as the U.S. struggles to curb the outbreak.

Earlier in the day, the doctor leading the White House's novel coronavirus response team said she is expecting as many as 200,000 coronavirus deaths if the U.S. response to the outbreak is 'almost perfect.'

"If we do things together well, almost perfectly, we could get in the range of 100,000-200,000 fatalities," Dr. Deborah Birx said while speaking on the Today morning television show. "We don't even want to see that."

Meanwhile, Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia ordered their residents to stay home Monday in a bid to contain the spread of the coronavirus while Florida issued restrictions for some residents.

The U.S. has become the country with the most confirmed coronavirus infections, followed by Italy, Spain and China after the virus emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December. It has since spread to 177 countries and regions.

There are 784,314 confirmed coronavirus infections worldwide and 37,638 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins. A total of 165,288 have recovered from the disease. -