The U.S. crossed 100,000 COVID-19 deaths just 127 days since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the first case of the coronavirus on January 21 from a traveler returning from Wuhan and 88 days since the first U.S. COVID-19 death was made public on February 29 in Washington.
The number of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. climbed to 100,047 on Wednesday, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University. The United States represents 28.3% of reported global COVID-19 deaths.
Just as the country reaches this milestone, most states are starting to ease lockdowns—measures states put in place in March to slow down the spread of the deadly virus. Last week, Ohio reopened dine-in restaurants and opened gyms this week. Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey— all hard hit by the virus—have opened some beaches with restrictions.
New York leads the nation with 29,370 COVID-19 deaths, followed by New Jersey with 11,339 deaths, and Massachusetts at 6,473 deaths. So far, the pandemic has taken the most life in the Northeast. Meanwhile, the second and third largest states by population, Texas and Florida, don’t rank in the top 10 for COVID-19 deaths.
But these numbers might be well under the actual death total. Deaths may have been attributed to other causes, especially in the early days when testing was lagging. U.S. death totals in April were 20% to 37% above the CDC’s threshold for ‘excess deaths’. This suggest the official COVID-19 death totals alone can’t account for the total increase in ‘excess deaths.’
