'Still reeling': US reaches tragic Covid milestone

Covid-19 has killed one of every 1000 people in the United States, slightly more than 11 months since the first case was reported.

According to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, there were 331,561 confirmed coronavirus fatalities in the nation as of Saturday afternoon (local time).

The US Census Bureau estimates that the population is currently about 330,750,000.

Almost 19 million people have been infected with the deadly coronavirus in the US.

The number of infections in the United States is by far the highest in the world - more than the two countries with the second and third-highest rate, India and Brazil, combined.

The grim milestone comes less than a year after the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported the first confirmed infection with the virus, in a patient in the state of Washington, on January 20.

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The first coronavirus-related death in the country occurred just a few days after that, on February 6 in California.

Infections and fatalities slowed down over the summer but have spiked again recently.

The death toll hit 100,000 in May. Six months later, the country surpassed 200,000 deaths.

Death rates have accelerated since November - the next 100,000 deaths were reported just 11 weeks after that, on December 14.

A recent analysis released by The COVID Tracking Project found the during the first three weeks of December "we've seen more Covid-19 deaths ... than in any other month in the US pandemic."

During that period, the country averaged 2506 deaths. In April, "when the country was still reeling from the pandemic's initial surge, we saw an average of 1,842 deaths reported each day."

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