U.S. passes Italy, China as nation with the most confirmed cases of COVID-19

The U.S. surged past China and Italy to become the planet's most infected nation Thursday, a stark milestone in the coronavirus era - and a reminder of its deadly, culture-changing effects on American life. The Johns Hopkins University dash board showed the U.S. with 82,404 COVID-19 infections as of 6 p.m., ET, moving past Italy (80,589) and China (81,782). More than 1,100 people have died in the U.S. Part of the reason for the nation's top ranking is cause and effect: The U.S. has drastically ramped up its testing protocols in order to identify infected people and those who may be carriers of the virus. As testing...