WASHINGTON: The United States reached 800,000 coronavirus-related deaths on Sunday, according to a Reuters tally, as the country spent more time indoors in cold weather and a potential surge in infections due to the highly transmissible Omicron version of the virus.
The milestone means that the death toll in the US from this single virus now exceeds the entire population of North Dakota.
Even with widely and freely available vaccines, the country has lost more lives to the virus this year, the more infectious delta variant than in 2020, and people refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Is done.
Since the start of the year, more than 450,000 people in the United States have died after contracting COVID-19, or 57 percent of all US deaths from the disease since the pandemic began.
Health experts say that most of the deaths this year were among unvaccinated patients. Deaths have increased despite advances in the care of COVID patients and new treatment options such as monoclonal antibodies.
According to a Reuters analysis, it took 111 days for US deaths to reach 700,000 from 600,000. The next 100,000 deaths took just 73 days.
Other countries have lost far fewer lives per capita in the past 11 months, according to a Reuters analysis.
In the Group of Seven (G7) wealthiest countries, the United States ranked worst in terms of deaths per capita from COVID-19 between January 1 and November 30, according to a Reuters analysis.
The death rate in the United States was three times higher than that of neighboring Canada and 11 times higher than in Japan.
Even when the United States is compared to a large pool of wealthy countries with access to vaccines, it ranks at the bottom. Among the 38 members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United States ranks 30th. Only Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Latvia Colombia, Poland and Slovenia had more COVID-19 deaths per capita. New Zealand had the lowest.
When compared with the European Union, the per capita death in the United States over the past 11 months is 1.3 times higher than in the entire bloc.
Of the more than 200 countries and territories tracked by Reuters, the United States ranks 36th.
According to a Reuters tally, the United States has the highest total COVID-19 deaths in the world, followed by Brazil and India. With only 4 percent of the world’s population, the country accounts for about 14 percent of COVID-19 deaths and 19 percent of cases worldwide. The country is set to cross 50 million cases soon.
New infections in the United States averaged about 120,000 a day, with Michigan contributing the most cases a day. According to the Michigan Health and Hospital Association, COVID-19 patients were filling Michigan’s hospitals at record levels, with three out of four not vaccinated.
Scientists are still evaluating the effectiveness of the new Omron variant and whether vaccines can provide adequate protection against it.
The delta variant remains the dominant version of the virus in the United States.
Eight of the 10 states that reported the most deaths per capita in the past 11 months were from the country’s south — Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Mississippi, South Carolina and West Virginia, according to a Reuters analysis.
CDC data shows that nearly 60 percent of the US population has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Fears of the new version have prompted Americans to line up for booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines at a record pace. Last week only one million people received a booster dose of one of three authorized vaccines, the highest rate regulators gave for additional shots.
Dr. Rochelle Valensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said, “We must work together at this time to address the impact of current cases, which are massive deltas, to the potential for more omicrons. To prepare myself.” at the White House briefing on Tuesday.
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