NEW YORK, N.Y. -- For weeks, officials have been calling the state of New York the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic and now the numbers truly back that statement up.

On Wednesday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo confirmed that positive cases in the state had risen to 159,937. According to Johns Hopkins University which has been tracking the data, that's more than any other country on the planet has reported.

The state, population about 19.3 million people, has more positive cases than countries like Italy (population 60.3 million) and Spain (population 46.9 million) which have been cited as two of the places the virus has hit hardest. Italy is currently at just over 152,000 cases; Spain has over 143,000.

New York is still trailing in number of deaths due to the virus. As of Wednesday, 7,067 people in New York have died of the virus. Italy, Spain, France and the United Kingdom all have more deaths.

Overall, about 15,000 people have died in the US from the virus.

This story was originally published by Stephen M. Lepore at WPIX.