U.S. COVID-19 deaths top 600,000 amid growing concern about variant

More than 600,000 deaths have been reported in the United States from COVID-19, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University, marking a grim milestone even as a nationwide push for vaccinations appears to have curbed the worst of the pandemic's toll among Americans.

Nearly four months have passed since U.S. topped 500,000 deaths in late February, a sign of a nationwide death rate that has slowed to levels not seen since the earliest weeks of the pandemic in March 2020. By comparison, it took just over one month for the U.S. death toll to surge from 400,000 to 500,000 this past winter. As hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. have continued to drop, a growing number of states are moving to end many of the public health measures imposed to curb the pandemic. Touting more than 8 in 10 eligible residents with at least one dose of vaccine, Vermont's Governor Phil Scott said Monday the state would end all its COVID-19 restrictions.