The United States surpassed the tragic milestone of 800,000 deaths due to complications of the disease caused by the new coronavirus on Sunday, while its cases exceeded 50 million in the early morning hours today, as the authorities prepare for the possible outbreak of infections due to citizens spend more time inside due to the weather and the highly contagious Omicron strain is spreading in the country.
This landmark means that the death toll has exceeded the entire population of the state of North Dakota.
Although COVID-19 vaccines are widely available and free, more deaths have been reported in the country this year than in 2020, as the most contagious Delta variant struck and much of the US population refused to be immunized. To date, roughly 60% of the population has been fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
By 2021, more than 450,000 people in the United States will die from complications of COVID-19; this is 56% of the reported deaths from the pandemic.
Most of the patients who succumbed this year were unvaccinated, say public health experts. Deaths have risen as treatment methods have improved and although there are now new patient care options, such as monoclonal antibodies.
According to an analysis by the Reuters news agency, the increase in deaths from 600,000 to 700,000 took 111 days. Their increase from 700,000 to 800,000 was recorded in just 73.
Other countries have lost far fewer lives per capita in the past 11 months. Among the rich countries of the Group of Seven (G7), the US was in the worst position in terms of deaths due to COVID-19 between January 1 and November 30.
The US mortality rate is three times that of neighboring Canada and eleven times that of Japan.
Even if the US is compared to a larger sample of rich nations with access to vaccines, they rank close to the bottom. Among the 38 member states of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), they are in 30th place. Only Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Latvia, Colombia, Poland and Slovenia have the highest number of deaths per capita. New Zealand is the country that has mourned the least.
Compared to the European Union, the US has 1.3 times more per capita deaths in the last 11 months than that in total.
Among the more than 200 states and regions where Reuters systematically monitors the epidemiological situation, the United States ranks 36th.
The pandemic death toll in the country is the heaviest in the world, ahead of those announced by Brazil and India. Although it has only 4% of the world’s population, this country has recorded about 14% of deaths due to the US and almost one in five cases of SARS-CoV-2 (19%).
The cases exceeded the 50 million mark early today.
On a daily basis, about 120,000 are confirmed per day, with the state of Michigan announcing the most recent ones. The state’s hospitals are full of patients, breaking records and three in four are unvaccinated, according to the state’s Health and Hospitals Association. Large numbers of infections are also found in colder states, such as Vermont and New Hampshire.
Scientists are still studying the possible impact of the new Omicron variant and whether existing vaccines provide adequate protection.
The predominant variant today remains the Delta (99% of infections according to Rochelle Wallenski, director of the CDC).
Of the ten states with the highest number of deaths per capita, eight are in the US South (Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Mississippi, South Carolina, West Virginia).
Concerns about the new variant have increased demand for vaccines. Just under one million people a day received booster doses last week, the highest number since third-dose doses were approved. Now 14% of Americans have received a booster dose.
The number of hospital admissions – a critical indicator – is also on the rise, rising by 20% from Thanksgiving to the end of November.
In the last month, deaths have increased by 4.6%.
According to Reuters, it was almost a year before the US reached the 25 million confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections. Another 25 million were recorded in 323 days.
Omicron will become a very serious problem if it changes its balance, if it starts to become dominant. “If we suddenly start to see that 10% of infections are due to Omicron and after next week its rate increases to 20%, it will tell us that we are in a wave of replacement (of one variant strain from the other), as we saw when “Delta has replaced Alpha,” said John Moore, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Weill Cornell Medical College.
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