As of Wednesday, March 11 more than 1,000 people in the United States have been infected with novel coronavirus, also known as COVID-19.

According to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, nearly 120,000 people across the globe have tested positive for the illness, and the majority of these outbreaks have occurred in Mainland China, the area where this strain of the virus is believed to have originated.

Despite this, the number of cases appears to be lessening in China and spiking elsewhere, particularly in Europe and the Middle East. 

At this time, Italy and Iran have the second and third highest national totals of confirmed cases behind China. 

Authorities said 631 people have died of COVID-19 in Italy, with an increase of 168 fatalities recorded Tuesday. The health crisis was dealing a serious blow to the country’s economy — the third-largest of the 19 countries using the euro — and threatened instability worldwide.

In Iran, the number of cases has reached 8,042 and 291 of those individuals have died. 

Meanwhile, in the U.S. dozens of cases were being tied to a conference in Boston, and leaders in multiple states were announcing curbs on large events.

Colleges around the country emptied their classrooms as they moved to online instruction and uncertainty surrounded the upcoming opening of the major league baseball season and college basketball’s championships. Even the famed buffets of Las Vegas were affected, with some of the Strip’s biggest being closed in a precautionary measure.

Harvard University student, Silvana Gomez spoke to the Associated Press regarding Harvard's response to the outbreak. 

At that university, undergraduates were instructed to leave campus by Sunday.

Gomez said, “It’s terrifying. I’m definitely very scared right now about what the next couple days, the next couple weeks look like.”

New York’s governor said National Guard troops would scrub public places and deliver food to a suburb where infections have spiked. In Washington state, where a Seattle-area nursing home was the center of an outbreak, officials said the virus had spread to at least 10 other long-term care facilities. In California, thousands of restless passengers remained stuck aboard a cruise ship, waiting for their turn to disembark to begin quarantines.

At this time, the United States has the eighth highest number of cases.