1 in 500 U.S. residents has died of COVID-19
CTV
The United States has reached another grim milestone in its fight against the devastating COVID-19 pandemic: 1 in 500 Americans have died from coronavirus since the nation's first reported infection.
As of Tuesday night, 663,913 people in the U.S. have died of COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins University data. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. population as of April 2020 was 331.4 million.
It's a sobering toll that comes as hospitals in the U.S. are struggling to keep up with the volume of patients and more children are grappling with the virus. In hopes of managing the spread and preventing more unnecessary deaths, officials are implementing mandates for vaccinations in workplaces and masking in schools.
They are fighting against a sharp upward trend in cases and deaths: The U.S. is reporting a more than 30% increase in average daily cases and a near tripling of average daily deaths over the past month, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But with only 54% of the population fully vaccinated, the rate of people initiating vaccinations each day has declined over the past month.
