The US Covid count death toll has passed 800,000, which is an unimaginable figure considering the infrastructure the country possesses. The figure is even more tragic considering that over 200,000 people lost their lives even after the vaccine was made available for the general public.
The figure represents the highest reported death toll of any country in the world and is expected to go far higher. The US currently accounts for around 4% of the entire world population, but around 15% of the deaths throughout the world due to the pandemic has taken place here. This milestone comes in the wake of the new Omicron variant, which the WHO has stated is spreading at quite an unprecedented rate.
US Covid Count: An Unprecedented Tragedy
The US Covid Count, compiled and released by the Johns Hopkins University on Tuesday, makes the number of deaths equal to the population of Atlanta and St. Louis combined, or Cleveland and Minneapolis combined. Safe to say, it is almost equivalent to how many American citizens die every year from a stroke or heart disease. A closely watched model of forecasting from the University of Washington projects the total number of reported deaths at 880,000 in the US by the 1st of March.
The US Covid Count comes as a spike emerges in the number of cases and hospitalizations in the country, a spike that has been brought forth by the Delta variant which arrived in the first half of 2021, and now has accounted for almost every single infection.
Health experts have been lamenting that most of the deaths in the country could have been avoidable if people took the vaccines which were widely available and effective. As of now, only 200 million- or just over 60% of the entire population have been vaccinated.
When the vaccine was first introduced in the country, the US Covid Count stood at around 300,000. In the middle of June, it touched 600,000, and on the 1st of October, the death toll reached 700,000.
