The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday warned that the U.S. could become the next center of the global coronavirus outbreak.

"We are now seeing a very large acceleration in cases in the U.S. So it does have that potential (to become the center of the pandemic)," said WHO spokeswoman, Margaret Harris.

The warning came as the U.S. was only 6,219 infections behind China's total by Thursday, while China had reported 81,285 infections, the U.S. had 75,066.

Meanwhile, U.S. deaths from the coronavirus pandemic have topped 1,000, in another grim milestone for a global outbreak that is taking lives and wreaking havoc on economies and established routines of ordinary life.

In a recognition of the scale of the threat, the U.S. Senate late Wednesday passed an unparalleled $2.2 trillion economic rescue package steering aid to businesses, workers and health care systems.