California and New York reopen as US passes 600,000 COVID deaths

The two large US states lifted their remaining restrictions, paving the way for a close to normal summer for Americans.

The United States’ death toll from COVID-19 topped 600,000 on Tuesday, even as the vaccination drive has drastically brought down daily cases and fatalities and allowed the country to emerge from the gloom and look forward to summer. The undesirable milestone, based on a Johns Hopkins University tally, came the same day that California and New York lifted most of their remaining restrictions, joining other states in opening the way, step by step, for what could be a fun and close to normal summer for many Americans. With the arrival of the vaccine in mid-December, COVID-19 deaths per day in the US have plummeted to an average of about 340, from a high of more than 3,400 in mid-January. Cases are running at about 14,000 a day on average, down from a quarter-million per day over the winter.