NEW YORK - The number of COVID-19 deaths in the United States topped 40,000 by 3:00 p.m. local time Sunday (1900 GMT), reaching 40,585, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

A total of 742,442 cases have been reported in the country, according to the CSSE.

The state of New York suffered the most deaths at 18,921 among 242,570 cases, with 14,451 deaths from New York City. In other hardest-hit states, New Jersey reported 4,364 fatalities, Michigan reported 2,308 deaths and Massachusetts recorded 1,560 deaths, the data showed.