The COVID-19 outbreak that began in China has sickened thousands worldwide.
By Thursday, the novel coronavirus outbreak in the United States had grown to at least 1,323 cases, with clusters in New York, Washington state and California, according to Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking reports and confirming them with local health departments.
The number of cases in the U.S. and worldwide is the subject of some debate, as testing has been rolled out unevenly and the criteria for diagnosis (through clinical means or a lab test) has varied from country-to-country.
For more information on COVID-19 cases in your state, check your state’s health department website, listed below. The CDC maintains nationwide statistics, but they are not updated as frequently. Information from Johns Hopkins University is not independently verified by ABC News.
Despite the growing number of lab-confirmed cases in the U.S., the figures pale in comparison, for instance, to the seasonal flu, which kills an estimated 12,000 to 61,000 people per year and affects between 9 million and 45 million people in the country alone, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
What is unknown is how deadly coronavirus, which has no treatment at this point, is compared to the flu or how serious its effects are for those who are sickened but do not die.
Of those cases in the U.S. (pictured above), at least 48 were diagnosed in individuals who were repatriated to the United States on government charter flights from Wuhan, China, and from the Diamond Princess cruise ship. But many others are cases of unknown origin, or potential community spread, where there is no known nexus to travel.
Tracking novel coronavirus worldwide
Meanwhile, the virus, officially known as COVID-19, has spread to dozens of countries in regions around the world.
The novel coronavirus outbreak began in Wuhan, China, in late December, and has since sickened more than 127,000 people worldwide, including hundreds in the United States, and killed thousands, primarily in mainland China, according to data from Johns Hopkins. More than half — some 68,000 of those have already recovered, JHU said.
Check your state’s health department for the latest COVID-19 cases
