US Hits Five Million COVID-19 Cases: Johns Hopkins Tally

The United States has registered over five million cases in the coronavirus pandemic, Johns Hopkins University's real-time tally showed Sunday, as well as over 162,000 deaths as the country struggles to control the disease.

The US tally reached 5,000,603 cases on Sunday morning and 162,441 deaths -- both totals by far the highest of any country in the world.

Polls have showed a large majority of voters unhappy with President Donald Trump's handling of the crisis, ahead of the November election that could see him ousted from office.

"The United States just passed 5 million reported infections of COVID-19," his Democrat opponent Joe Biden tweeted Sunday.

"It's a number that boggles the mind and breaks the heart. Each time the number goes up, it represents a life altered, a family stricken with anxiety, a community on edge. It shouldn't have gotten this bad."

Keen to show he was taking action, Trump on Saturday signed executive actions extending financial relief to Americans hit by the pandemic after lawmakers failed to agree on a new economic stimulus package.

"We've had it and we're going to save American jobs and provide relief to the American workers," Trump said Saturday at a press conference at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he was spending the weekend.

With double digit unemployment, disruption to businesses from social distancing rules, and rapid coronavirus spread, many Americans have been relying on relief measures approved earlier by Congress, but which mostly expired in July.