The coronavirus pandemic hit an all-time high within the United States on Friday, with the total number of deaths of COVID-19 soaring to 900,000.
Yet, the daily count of people killed has started to decrease as per data compiled by Reuters.
The latest count marks an increase of over 100,000 U.S. COVID-19 fatalities since December. 12, which coincides with a rash of hospitalizations and infections caused by the highly infectious Omicron variant of COVID-19.
Initial evidence has suggested that even though it is more contagious, Omicron typically has less severe symptoms than earlier versions from the same virus-like Delta.
MORE: Singapore’s COVID-19 daily cases double to over 13,000.
However, the sheer number of Omicron cases has led to a rise in hospitalizations which have stretched the U.S. healthcare systems to their limit in the last few weeks.
Experts have stated that the majority of Omicron patients who required hospitalization were not vaccinated and those with other chronic health issues.
The data also suggest that Omicron could have impacted the United States harder than other nations with a smaller population like in Africa.
According to media, their daily tally of data from state agencies, the total number of American victims of COVID-19 since the initial U.S. cases were detected in early 2020 was 904,067.
That’s more than the total population that lives in South Dakota.
This is the most significant number of COVID-19 deaths recorded by any country, followed by Russia, Brazil, and India, with more than 1.8 million deaths.
For coronavirus deaths per person, this country is ranked 20th. The United States ranks 20th, just below the top two nations – Peru and Russia.
However, it indeed appears that the U.S. COVID-19 mortality rate seems to be slowed as the Omicron increase slows.
The average of seven days dropped for two consecutive days to 2,592, as compared to an average of 2,674 deaths in the current wave of illnesses.
In comparison, the highest Delta wave in January 2021 had an annual average of 3300 people dying per day.
A few public health officials have suggested that the Omicron outbreak is fading and hospitalizations drop.
However, the disease could be entering an entirely new period in the United States and elsewhere.
The state of Iowa For instance, in Iowa, Governor Davenport announced on Friday afternoon that the public health catastrophe proclamation and the specific security measures that accompany the declaration would expire on February 15.
“The flu, as well as other infectious diseases, are commonplace in our life, and coronavirus may be handled similarly.” governor Kim Reynolds tweeted.
In the United States, confirmed cases of COVID-19 are currently averaging 354,000 per day, which is half of the number reported just two weeks ago.
It’s also down from the high of 806,000 infections per day on Jan. 15. However, according to officials, many diseases remain unreported because they are detected using tests at home and are not reported to health officials.
In the last 7 days, the state that reported the most new cases per person cases included Alaska, Kentucky, Washington state, South Carolina, and North Dakota.
The current U.S. COVID hospitalizations stood at 117,000, compared to the highest of more than 153,000 in January. 20.
Eric is a professional news editor, writer, and blogger for the last 10 years. He is working with NewsGater as an off-beat news editor cum writer.