(AP) — The number of people around the world who have contracted coronavirus has surged past 500,000, and the United States now tops the list.
Those are the latest grim milestones for a global outbreak that is taking lives and wreaking havoc on economies.
The global death toll climbed past 23,000 and Spanish and Italian medical workers are at breaking point.
In the U.S., markets soared on news the Senate had unanimously passed an unprecedented $2.2 trillion economic rescue package that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says will gain final congressional approval Friday.
The U.N. chief told industrialized nations that the world is not winning the fight against the virus.
