Washington, May 26: The United States became the world's first country whose COVID-19 death toll has crossed the 100,000-mark. According to Worldometer tracker, the number of fatalities jumped to 100,046 by the time this report was first published. The daily death count had rose by 241 in the early hours of Tuesday, and was feared to further accelerate. Donald Trump Says US Topping World Coronavirus Cases Is ‘Badge of Honour’ for America.

The total cases of coronavirus topped 1.7 million in the country -- higher than any other part in the world. As per the tracker, the count of cases had surged to 1,713,463. The numbers include nearly 1,144,639 active patients. Despite the alarming stats, US President Donald Trump is aggressively pushing towards completely re-opening the country.

"Stock Market up BIG, DOW crosses 25,000. S&P 500 over 3000. States should open up ASAP. The Transition to Greatness has started, ahead of schedule. There will be ups and downs, but next year will be one of the best ever! (sic)," Trump tweeted, as he called upon Democratic Governors to permit the reopening of core economic sectors.

The President, despite the unprecedented death toll, credited his regime for "restricting" the number of fatalities. He claimed that the number of people perishing due to coronavirus would had been way more higher had his regime not acted in a swift manner in the initial phase of virus breakout.

"For all of the political hacks out there, if I hadn’t done my job well, & early, we would have lost 1 1/2 to 2 Million People, as opposed to the 100,000 plus that looks like will be the number. That’s 15 to 20 times more than we will lose. I shut down entry from China very early," he said.

Globally, the pandemic has infected more than 5.6 million persons and claimed nearly 350,000 lives so far. The worst-affected country is the US, followed by Brazil which now accounts for over 377,000 of the total cases. Russia, Turkey and India are emerging as the three other hotspots of COVID-19 across the globe.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 26, 2020 11:03 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).