ANKARA

The death toll in the U.S. from coronavirus exceeded the 45,000 mark on Wednesday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

The university's running tally counted 45,075 deaths and 825,306 cases.

The country continues to lead in COVID-19 cases and virus-linked deaths worldwide. It has nearly a double fatalities than Italy's 24,648, and almost quadruple of Spain's 208,389 cases.

Meanwhile, almost 75,700 people have recovered, according to the university's Coronavirus Resource Center.

New York is the worst-hit state with 19,118 deaths and more than 258,500 cases, followed by New Jersey with 4,753 deaths and nearly 92,400 cases.

On Tuesday, the director of the U.S. health agency Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that a second wave of the pandemic would be direr next winter due to the flu season.

"There’s a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through," Robert Redfield told The Washington Post. "We're going to have the flu epidemic and the coronavirus epidemic at the same time."

Redfield urged federal and state officials to use the coming months to prepare for what lies ahead, mentioning the importance of social distancing will continue as stay-at-home orders are lifted.