The United States on Wednesday surpassed 400,000 novel coronavirus cases, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.

The pandemic has now claimed the lives of at least 12,936 people in the United States, which leads the world in the number of confirmed infections with 401,116, by the Baltimore-based school's count.

The 300,000-case milestone was passed on Saturday. New York has reported record 779 coronavirus deaths in past 24 hours.