U.S. COVID deaths hit 600,000

Despite major gains in the battle against the coronavirus, the number of deaths from COVID-19 in the United States reached 600,000 today (Tuesday).

As of the writing of this article, the sum of fatalities is at 600,185, according to Johns Hopkins University. Total cases to date are at 33,482,435. The death total is roughly equal to the number of people who succumb to cancer annually in the United States. Across the planet, the total death toll is at roughly 3.8 million.

According to the Associated Press, the number of deaths from the virus peaked at 3,400 daily in the U.S. in January. The vaccine’s impact was almost immediate, with daily deaths dropping to about 340 today. Confirmed new cases have fallen from 250,000 a day in the winter months to 14,000 a day currently.

California and New York both “opened up” today and President Joe Biden warned that “now is not the time to let our guard down.”

The virus has claimed the life of more Americans than either the U.S. Civil War or World War II ­. “It’s a tragedy,” said Stephen Morse, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University Medical Center told The New York Times. “A lot of that tragedy was avoidable and it’s still happening.”