US COVID-19 cases exceed 3.54 mln with at least 39 states reporting more new cases

In the United States, the number of COVID-19 cases surpassed 3.54 million on Thursday as of 17:33 local time, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University. Meanwhile, the national death toll from the disease rose to 138,072, according to the CSSE. The country saw more than 71,000 new cases and 966 new deaths in the past 24 hours, data showed. At least 39 U.S. states reported an increase in new cases from the week before, according to CNN on Tuesday. The southern state of Florida added 156 deaths on Tuesday.

The state's death toll from the infectious respiratory disease stood at 4,782 as of Thursday. Amid the coronavirus case surge, Colorado governor issued a statewide face mask order on Thursday, requiring residents to wear a mask or face covering whenever they're in public. A total of 39 states have made the use of masks or face coverings mandatory in public. The governor of the U.S. state of Maryland has slammed President Donald Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic as hopeless.