WASHINGTON, June 17. /TASS/. The number of people who died of COVID-19 in the United States has exceeded the country’s official casualties in World War I, the Johns Hopkins University said citing own calculations based on data from federal and local authorities.

The United States has more than 2.1 million of novel coronavirus cases, with 116,526 deaths. During World War I, the country lost 116,516 people, according to official data.

In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia.

On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 8,130,600 people have been infected worldwide and more than 439,400 deaths have been reported.