US COVID-19 cases surpass 13m -- Johns Hopkins University

NEW YORK - The total number of COVID-19 cases in the United States topped 13 million on Friday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

US COVID-19 case count rose to 13,047,202, with a total of 264,624 deaths, as of 4:26 pm local time (2126 GMT), according to the CSSE tally.

Texas reported the country's most cases, standing at 1,206,248, followed by California with 1,179,857 cases, and Florida with 979,020 cases. Illinois registered 705,063 cases and New York confirmed 628,375 cases.

Other states with over 350,000 cases include Georgia, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, Tennessee and North Carolina, the CSSE data showed.

By far, the United States remains the nation worst hit by the pandemic, with the world's most cases and deaths, making up more than 21 percent of the global caseload.

US COVID-19 cases hit 10 million on Nov 9, and have since then increased at a pace of 1 million more cases about six days on average.

Thursday marked the 25th consecutive day that the US daily cases reported more than 100,000 since the beginning of November.

Millions of Americans traveled by air across the country since last week, despite health officials' advise of celebrating Thanksgiving at home with immediate household members only.

Experts feared gatherings that happened after long-distance traveling could push case numbers higher in the wake of the Thanksgiving holiday.

At the same time, decreasing crowds of customers were seen in US brick-and-mortar retailers on Black Friday. Safety protocols and capacity controls have been put in place at many stores as the pandemic is raging across the country.

Retailers are trying to encourage customers to shop online on Black Friday.