Key Takeaways:
- The figure is doubly heartbreaking because vaccines are widely available, and the WHO warns that Omicron is spreading at an unprecedented rate.
- The figure is the highest reported toll of any country globally, and it is likely to be higher.
The death toll from Covid-19 in the United States has surpassed 800,000; a once-unthinkable figure made even more gloomy by the fact that more than 200,000 of those deaths occurred after vaccines became available last spring.
The United States accounts for approximately 4% of the global population. Still, it accounts for about 15% of the 5.3 million known deaths from the coronavirus since the outbreak began in China two years ago.
The Omicron milestone comes as the world braces to increase the number of new Omicron variant cases. The WHO has warned is spreading at an unprecedented rate.
On Tuesday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters that the variant had been detected in 77 countries and was most likely present in the rest of the world.
Omicron, discovered by South Africa and reported to the WHO on November 24, has many scientists’ mutations. As it gains a foothold in the United States, the new variant poses a new threat, though experts are unsure how dangerous it is.
The number of Covid deaths in the United States, as compiled and released by Johns Hopkins University on Tuesday, is roughly equal to the combined populations of Atlanta and St. Louis, or Minneapolis and Cleveland. In addition, it is approximately equivalent to the number of Americans who die each year as a result of heart disease or stroke.
According to a closely watched forecasting model developed by the University of Washington, there will be over 880,000 reported deaths in the United States by March 1.
“Almost all of the deaths are now preventable,” said Dr. Chris Beyrer, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “And it’s because they haven’t been vaccinated.”
When the vaccine was first introduced, the country’s death toll was around 300,000. It peaked at 600,000 in mid-June and 700,000 on October 1.
Beyrer recalled that one of the worst-case scenarios predicted up to 240,000 American deaths in March or April 2020.
Source: The Guardian News
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