MOSCOW, December 15. /TASS/. The death toll from the novel coronavirus in the United States reached 300,267 on Monday, according to the Johns Hopkins University, which relies on data provided by international organizations, federal and local authorities.

Since the start of the pandemic in the country, as many as 16,388,504 people have been infected. Most cases were confirmed in California (1,598,389), Texas (1,411,749), Florida (1,134,383), Illinois (856,118) and New York (784,204).

In late December 2019, Chinese officials informed 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 72.3 mln people have been infected worldwide and more than 1.6 mln deaths have been reported.