File photo: Agencies

NEW YORK, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- The number of COVID-19 cases in the United States surpassed 19 million on Sunday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

With the most cases, 2,123,163, California became the first U.S. state to have more than 2 million cases. Texas reported 1,668,263 cases, followed by Florida with 1,264,588 cases. The states of Illinois and New York both registered more than 900,000 cases.

Other states with over 500,000 cases include Ohio, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Michigan, North Carolina and Wisconsin, the CSSE data showed.

By far, the United States remains the nation worst hit by the pandemic, with the world's most cases and deaths, making up more than 23 percent of the global caseload.

Based on current projection scenario, an updated model forecast by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington projected a total of 567,195 COVID-19 deaths in the United States by April 1, 2021.