United States Surpasses Another COVID19 Milestone
The first COVID19 death in the United States occurred on February 6, 2020, in Santa Clara, CA. Johns Hopkins has calculated the number of days that have passed between each 100,000 deaths.
- 1 death to 100,000: 110 days
- 100k to 200k: 109 days
- 200k to 300k: 89 days
- 300k to 400k: 33 days
- 400k to 500k: 33 days
- 500k to 600k: 122 days
- 600k to 700k: 112 days
The United States surpassed 700,000 COVID19 deaths on October 2, 2021. COVID19 became the deadliest pandemic in American history, overtaking the death toll from the influenza pandemic of 1918 and 1919, which killed approximately 675,000 people.
The 700,00 milestone was different because the last 100,000 people to die passed away months after vaccines had been widely available to American adults. The overwhelming majority of Americans who died were unvaccinated. The US had one of the highest death rates of any country in the world with ample supply of vaccines.
Americans who died between June 2021 and October 2021 were concentrated in the South in states with the lowest vaccination rates. They were also younger. About 40 percent of the most recent 100,000 people who died were under age 65.
With 76 days remaining in 2021, the US could surpass 750,000 cumulative deaths by the end of the year. The US reported 371,911 total deaths in 2020, which would make 2021 even more deadly than the first year of the pandemic, despite the availability of multiple highly effective vaccines.
