There are now 1 million coronavirus cases worldwide — with nearly a quarter in the US

Coronavirus cases worldwide have doubled in the last week and reached 1 million confirmed cases Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the chief of the World Health Organization, said Wednesday he was “deeply concerned about the rapid escalation” of the pandemic, according to The Guardian.

“Over the past five weeks, we have witnessed a near exponential growth in the number of new cases, reaching almost every country,” he said.

The 500,000 mark was reached March 26. At the time, Ghebreyesus said the pandemic was accelerating and he warned that the window of opportunity was closing, according to CNBC.

Nearly a quarter of the worldwide cases are in the United States, which has become the world’s epicenter for the virus. There are now 234,462 cases in the U.S. and 5,607 deaths as of April 2. The country had just 1,300 deaths a week ago and had more than 1,000 deaths Wednesday, Johns Hopkins data shows.

The United States has more than double the confirmed coronavirus cases as Italy, which has the second most in the world with 115,242.

President Donald Trump warned Wednesday that the worst is yet to come.

“We’re going to have a couple of weeks, starting pretty much now, but especially a few days from now, that are going to be horrific,” the president said, according to The Associated Press.

Trump also said Wednesday he is considering restricting flights in and out of ‘hot spots’ in the U.S, the AP reported.

Of the country’s 5,607 deaths, 1,397 are in New York City, Johns Hopkins University data shows.

This story was originally published April 2, 2020 at 2:47 PM with the headline "There are now 1 million coronavirus cases worldwide — with nearly a quarter in the US."