New York, April 12 (IANS) The total number of deaths due to COVID-19 in the United States topped 20,000, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

A total of 20,071 people have died of the disease among 519,453 confirmed cases in the country as of 4 p.m. local time (2000 GMT) on Saturday, the CSSE said, reported Xinhua news agency.

New York state has recorded the most deaths in the country, 8,627, which is followed by New Jersey and Michigan with 2,183 and 1,276, respectively. A total of 29,507 patients in the country have recovered, according to the CSSE.

--IANS rt/