New York
Over half a million people have died of coronavirus in the United States, as the country races to vaccinate its most vulnerable residents before new variants of the deadly disease become widespread.
More people have died in the United States due to COVID-19 than any other country in the world. With 4% of the world’s population, the United States has 20% of all COVID deaths and one of the highest rates of deaths per 100,000 residents, exceeded by only a few countries such as Belgium, the United Kingdom and Italy.(Graphic: https://tmsnrt.rs/34pvUyi)
Unlike many countries around the world that had national lockdowns and mask mandates, former U.S. President Donald Trump left public health decisions to state and local governments, resulting in a patchwork of rules that often contradicted the advice of doctors and health officials. Following many maskless yearend holiday gatherings, January became the deadliest month of the pandemic so far with an average of 3,000 people dying every day.
With total deaths above 500,000, one in every 673 U.S. residents has succumbed to the pandemic. Global deaths have reached 2.57 million or one out of every 3,000 people on the planet. The United States has reported over 28 million cases to date, about 25% of all global infections. After peaking at nearly 300,000 new cases in a single day on Jan. 8, the United States is now reporting about 70,000 new infections each day.
However, new variants of the virus threaten to disrupt the path to normalcy. Officials have also warned that most of these cases are from a more transmissible variant first discovered in the United Kingdom called B.1.1.7, which could become the dominant variant in the United States by March.
Health officials are also worried about a variant first identified in South Africa called 501Y.V2, which has multiple mutations in the important “spike” protein that current vaccines are targeting.—Reuters
