Amid Omicron concerns, US COVID-19 death toll hits 8,00,000, most in the world

The United States, which accounts for approximately 4% of the world's population, has reported about 15% of the 5.3 million known deaths from the coronavirus.

File Photo (Reuters)

New Delhi: The US death toll from COVID-19 topped 8,00,000 on Tuesday, a once-unimaginable figure seen as doubly tragic, given that more than 2,00,000 of those lives were lost after the vaccine became available practically for the asking last spring.

The number of deaths, as compiled by Johns Hopkins University, is about equal to the population of Atlanta and St. Louis combined, or Minneapolis and Cleveland put together. It is roughly equivalent to how many Americans die each year from heart disease or stroke.

US has seen most number of COVID-19 deaths

The United States has the highest reported toll of any country and accounts for approximately 4% of the world's population but about 15% of the 5.3 million known deaths from the coronavirus since the outbreak began in China two years ago.

The true death toll in the U.S. and around the world is believed to be significantly higher because of cases that were overlooked or concealed. A closely watched forecasting model from the University of Washington projects a total of over 8,80,000 reported deaths in the U.S. by March 1.

Health experts lament that many of the deaths in the United States were especially heartbreaking because they were preventable by way of the vaccine, which became available in mid-December a year ago and was thrown open to all adults by mid-April of this year.

Over 60% of Americans are fully vaccinated

About 200 million Americans are fully vaccinated, or just over 60% of the population. That is well short of what scientists say is needed to keep the virus in check.

"Almost all the people dying are now dying preventable deaths," said Dr. Chris Beyrer, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "And that's because they're not immunized. And you know that, God, it's a terrible tragedy." 

When the vaccine was first rolled out, the country's death toll stood at about 3,00,000. It hit 600,000 in mid-June and 700,000 on October 1.

The U.S. crossed the latest threshold with cases and hospitalizations on the rise again in a spike driven by the highly contagious delta variant, which arrived in the first half of 2021 and now accounts for practically all infections. Now the omicron variant is gaining a foothold in the country, though scientists are not sure how dangerous it is.