The US has surpassed 500,000 deaths from the new coronavirus, despite the downward trend in the number of cases and continued vaccination efforts.
The United States reached half a million deaths on Monday, the largest of all countries, just over a year after the first American is believed to have died of the virus in Santa Clara County, California.
The true toll of the coronavirus pandemic, however, is probably much greater, as the federal figures maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show an excess of mortality well above what could be assumed for a typical year.
“It is something that is impressive when you look at the numbers, almost unbelievable, but it is true,” Fauci said on Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program the day before the US officially crossed the 500,000 limit. “This is a devastating pandemic, and it is historic. People will be talking about those decades and decades and decades from now. “
The burden caused by the coronavirus proved to be more deadly than even some of the most pessimistic estimates suggested. COVID-19 has killed nearly 50 percent more people in the United States than the number of people who have died from the flu over the past decade – a figure almost equal to the population of Atlanta or Kansas City, Missouri.
The news comes at a time when other trends in the United States are more promising, including cases that have dropped by more than 40% in the past two weeks and more than 70% since January, according to The New York Times. Daily positive tests are at their lowest rate since late October. Mortality rates are also starting to decline.
The country has made tremendous progress in recent weeks to contain a winter tsunami of new cases, although an average of 71,000 Americans still tested positive for the virus every day last week, a rate still well above the summer and spring peaks. In the last week, an average of 1,850 people died of the virus every day.
Hospitalizations have dropped more than 50 percent since January, with a total of 62,000 reported across the country on Thursday, according to the Times.
A surprising breakthrough in the development of two vaccines that have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, and several others that will soon seek authorization for emergency use, contributed in part to the decline in cases, although health experts have warned that the country – and the world – there is still a long way to go before the virus gets under control.
“We had a great peak and we are starting to go down. Certainly, the number of infected people is contributing to this, also some contribution to vaccines. Not much, I think we haven’t vaccinated enough people yet to get collective immunity. I think you are seeing the natural peak and falling, ”said Fauci on” Meet the Press “.
But the extreme weather in some states, particularly Texas, may be obscuring the whole picture. Several Lone Star State test and vaccination sites have been forced to close and delay reports amid winter storms, and Travis County, which includes Austin, has yet to release the post-Friday figures.
At the same time, more states are relaxing restrictions on coronavirus, lifting bans on indoor activities such as restaurants and gyms, and increasing capacity at sporting events and public meetings. Schools are reopening in many parts of the country, but health experts continue to urge people to be careful with distance and wearing masks.
“The baseline of daily infections is still very, very high. It is not the 300 to 400,000 that we had for some time, but we want to get that baseline very, very, very low before we start to think that we are out of danger, ”said Fauci.
Progress comes as numerous infectious variants of the virus, including strains believed to have originated in England and South Africa, have been recorded in the United States.
Across the country, about 12% of Americans received at least their first dose of the vaccine, with 5% receiving both.
The virus has infected more than 111 million people and claimed nearly 2.5 million lives worldwide, according to data maintained by the Center for Science and Systems Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.