Death Toll For Coronavirus Deaths In US Crosses 600,000

More than 600,000 people have died from the coronavirus in the U.S., according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

To put it into context, it's a higher death toll than the number of American soldiers killed in combat during the Vietnam War, World War I, and World War II combined.

The latest grim milestone comes amid signs of optimism about the state of the pandemic in the U.S., where vaccines have helped drive down the seven-day average to about 14,000 new cases and less than 400 deaths per day.

It took nearly four months for the U.S. to go from 500,000 total deaths to 600,000, per JHU. By comparison, the country went from 400,000 to 500,000 deaths in a little over 30 days.

The country's vaccination rate, which was going on strong has begun to fall to around 1m doses administered per day - from a high this April of nearly 3.4m.

Roughly 43% of the US population, or about 144 million Americans, are fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC says people are fully vaccinated at least two weeks after their final vaccine dose.

It comes as the CDC officially labels the Delta mutation, which was first discovered in India, a "variant of concern". Delta variant cases make up to 10% of all new infections, the CDC said, and are growing in comparison to the dominant Alpha variant, first identified in Kent, UK.

A White House Covid adviser, Andy Slavitt, says this death toll was avoidable. According to him, Americans could have avoided such severe losses if they had been prepared to “sacrifice a little bit for one another”.

Throughout the pandemic, Republicans have been less likely to wear masks and observe other public health measures meant to mitigate virus transmission. Former president, Donald Trump eschewed social distancing guidelines to hold rallies or events. His supporters are now also more likely to say they will “definitely not” get vaccinated than Democrats or independents. Although the US had several lockdowns, most were not severe, which contributed to the increased spread of Covid-19.

Brazil and India have reported the next highest death tolls, with Brazil at more than 488,000 deaths and India at more than 377,000.