US COVID-19 deaths top 180,000: Johns Hopkins University

NEW YORK - US COVID-19 deaths surpassed 180,000 on Thursday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

With the national caseload topping 5.8 million, the death toll across the United States rose to 180,020 as of 12:28 pm local time (1628 GMT), according to the CSSE.

The state of New York recorded 32,921 fatalities, topping the US state-level death toll list. New Jersey reported the country's second largest death toll of 15,914. The states of California, Texas and Florida all confirmed more than 10,000 deaths, the tally showed.

States with more than 7,000 fatalities also include Massachusetts, Illinois and Pennsylvania.

The United States remains the worst-hit nation with the most cases and deaths, making up more than 20 percent of the global death toll.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently changed its COVID-19 testing guidelines, according to which most people without symptoms are no longer advised to get tested, even after an exposure to someone known to have the virus.

The new guidelines may discourage efforts on testing, which is fundamental to controlling outbreaks of any infectious disease, experts warned.