NEW YORK, March 26 (Xinhua) -- The United States reported 82,404 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of 6 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time on Thursday (2200 GMT), according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

The United States has surpassed China to become the country with most COVID-19 cases in the world, according to the CSSE.

The nationwide tally grew over 10,000 cases in less than five hours. The state of New York has become the epicenter of the country's outbreak with 37,802 cases reported. New Jersey and California have reported 6,876 and 3,802 cases, respectively, according to the center.

Total COVID-19-linked deaths in the United States reached 1,178, while 281 of them occurred in New York City and 100 in Kings County of Washington state.

The Johns Hopkins University data showed that China (including the mainland and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan regions) reported 82,034 cases as of 6 p.m. Thursday U.S. Eastern Time.

China's National Health Commission reported 81,285 confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland by the end of Wednesday Beijing Time. Meanwhile, 410 confirmed cases had been reported in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), 30 confirmed cases in the Macao SAR, and 235 in Taiwan.

Confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide reached 526,044 with 23,709 deaths, according to the CSSE.

(Article by Xinhua Reporter Chang Yuan)  ■