U.S. passes Italy on recorded coronavirus deaths

The U.S. reported the highest coronavirus death toll in the world as of Saturday, per Johns Hopkins data. 18,860 Americans have died.

The big picture: More than 1,000 people in the U.S. have died every day from COVID-19 since April 1. China has reported fewer infections and deaths, but its reporting is encountering considerable skepticism.

Where it stands: Hard-struck states like New York, Louisiana and Illinois have passed their expected peak dates, when demands for medical resources like hospital beds and ventilators would be at their highest points, per models by the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

• The death toll in New York — the epicenter of the virus in the U.S. — surged to its highest one-day total on Thursday, a record-high for the third straight day, then lowered on Friday.
• Social distancing measures could bring the total projected death toll in the U.S. down to 60,000, a significant drop from earlier models that projected between 100,000 and 240,000 deaths, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said.
• African Americans, Native Americans and Hispanics are more likely than others in the U.S. to be endangered by the coronavirus due to chronic health conditions and the effects of economic inequality, Surgeon General Jerome Adams said on Friday.

The other side: China's reported infections and deaths have been questioned by allies including Iran in recent days, the New York Times reports.

• The CIA has reportedly been warning the White House since February that China has understated its infection rates, per the Times.

The bottom line: The U.S. missed the boat on the kind of swift, early response that would have been most effective against COVID-19, and has been scrambling to catch up ever since, Axios' Marisa Fernandez reports.

Go deeper: Global coronavirus deaths surpass 100,000