In US, Covid-19 death toll hits 900,000

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Covid-19 death toll in the United States has crossed the grim milestone of 900,000, less than two months after surpassing 800,000.

Al-Jazeera reported the milestone came on Friday, 13 months into a US vaccination campaign that has been beset by misinformation and political strife.

With Omicron cases falling in 49 of America’s 50 states, deaths are running at more than 2,400 a day on average, the channel said.

The US has the highest coronavirus death toll in the world, the actual number is said to be much higher.

Dr Joshua M Sharfstein, a public health professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, was quoted as saying: “We have underestimated our enemy here, and we have under-prepared to protect ourselves.”

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say 64 percent of Americans, or about 212 million people, are fully vaccinated.

The US death toll hit 600,000 in mid-June 2021 and 700,000 on October 1. It soared to 800,000 on December 14.

The latest 100,000 fatalities include those resulting from the Delta and Omicron variants of the deadly virus.

In December, the latter started spreading fast and soon became the principal strain in the US.

The US death toll from the coronavirus now exceeds the entire population of the state of South Dakota, the city of Indianapolis or the country of Fiji.

Data from Johns Hopkins University shows, as of late Friday afternoon, over 900,500 Americans had died from the virus since the pandemic emerged, with more than 76 million reported cases.

PAN Monitor/mud