After 15:45 local time (20:45 GMT), Johns Hopkins University reported 300,267 deaths, which continues to place the US as the country with the most deaths in absolute terms
The United States surpassed 300,000 confirmed deaths from the coronavirus on Monday, a grim record that was reached on the same day the vaccine began to be administered in the country, and in the midst of one of the deadliest spells since the pandemic began.
After 15:45 local time (20:45 GMT), the independent count of Johns Hopkins University reported 300,267 deaths, which continues to place the United States as the country with the most deaths in absolute terms, while contagions exceed 16.3 million.
The devastating milestone was reached at a time when the death toll from the disease similar to those caused by the September 11, 2001 attacks (2,977) or the attack on Pearl Harbor (2,403) are being recorded daily.
In the first five days of December alone, a million new cases were registered in the country, and in a week this month, covid-19 surpassed heart disease as the leading cause of death in the United States, according to the Center. of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, in English).
The death record was reached hours after the vaccination campaign began across the United States, with 2.9 million doses being shipped to more than 600 points across the country, averaging more than 200,000 infections daily.
Authorities hope that with the Pfizer vaccine – newly authorized in the country – and with the upcoming approval of three others developed by Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and AstraZeneca, all Americans who wish to do so can be vaccinated by the end of the second quarter of 2021.
However, given the complicated logistics and the relative shortage of doses, the vast majority of Americans will still have to wait weeks or months to receive the vaccine.
The first American to receive the vaccine was the African-American nurse Sandra Lindsay, who works in the intensive care unit of a hospital in the New York borough of Queens, where last April there were more than 3,500 patients with Covid-19.
“My profession is deeply rooted in science and I can tell you that the vaccine is safe to take. I have seen the alternative and I do not want that, so I encourage all of you to get vaccinated, to follow the experts, and not to give up ”, Lindsay stressed in an appearance before the press.
The Institute for Health Metrics and Assessments (IHME) at the University of Washington, whose models for predicting the evolution of the pandemic are often set by the White House, estimates that when President Donald Trump leaves office on the 20th of 380,000 people will have died in January, and by April 1, more than 500,000.
Amelia Warner
Amelia Warner writes all the Latest Articles. She mostly covers Entertainment topics, but at times loves to write about movie reviews as well.
