Covid-19 death toll in the United States surpasses 600,000

As of Tuesday, more than 600,000 Americans have died of Covid-19.

According to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center, the death toll from the novel coronavirus in the United States now stands at 600,138 – more than in any other country.

The rate at which Americans are dying of the virus, however, has considerably slowed in recent months. In mid-January, when the pandemic reached its deadliest peak in the US, the country was recording an average of about 3,300 deaths per day. Today that rate is about 330.

That decrease is largely due to the three Covid-19 vaccines finding their way into Americans’ arms. As of this week, 53 per cent of all Americans have received at least one dose of a vaccine, either from Pfizer, Moderna, or Johnson & Johnson.

Even so, the number of deaths in the US is disproportionately high. The next highest death toll is in India, which has more than four times America’s population. In that country, 377,031 people have died of the virus – less than two-thirds of the US number.

The number is also a reminder of the shocking toll Covid has taken on the US, where the virus first arrived less than a year and a half ago. The first American to die of Covid-19 passed away on 29 February. By mid-April, it was killing more than 2,000 Americans a day. By the end of May, it had killed more than 100,000 Americans total.

However, the time between such grim milestones has significantly expanded. When the country reached 500,000 deaths, it had only been about a month since it had reached 400,000. Getting from 500,000 to 600,000 deaths took about four months.

The number of infections in the US has also plummeted. In January, the country reported an average of over 250,000 new Covid cases per day. Today that number is about 14,000.

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