U.S. COVID-19 Deaths Dip Below 300 A Day For First Time Since March 2020

U.S. COVID deaths have dipped below 300 per day – this hasn’t happened since March 2020.

This news comes as the U.S. reaches yet another vaccination milestone: 150 million Americans fully vaccinated (about 45% of the population).

The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 is over 601,000. The global count is approaching four million people. These figures may not even reveal the full extent of the damage COVID has done to the world.

In early January, the U.S. was averaging around 250,000 new COVID cases a day. Today, that number is down to 11,400.

Additionally, in January, about 3,400 people were dying per day because of COVID. Now, the U.S. deaths per day are down to 293, according to Johns Hopkins University.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) announced on Monday that the state only had 10 new deaths (in spring 2020, almost 800 people were dying per day in New York).

In 2020, COVID-19 became the third-leading cause of death in the U.S. In 2021, however, more Americans are dying from accidents, chronic lower respiratory diseases, strokes or Alzheimer’s disease rather than COVID-19, according to CDC data.

While this is all good news for the U.S., other countries are still struggling to fight the virus. And President Joe Biden still may not be able to ship 80 million COVID-19 vaccine doses abroad by the end of June that he had earlier promised.

On May 17, Biden announced: “Over the next six weeks, the United States of America will send 80 million doses overseas. This will be more vaccines than any country has actually shared to date – five times more than any other country – more than Russia and China, which have donated 15 million doses.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that shipping the shots is “a Herculean logistical challenge.”

“What we have found to be the biggest challenge is not actually the supply, we have plenty of doses to share with the world, but this is a Herculean logistical challenge,” Psaki said.

Article by Elizabeth Letsou