1.1 Million People Have Died From COVID-19 In US, CDC Tally Shows

The United States has recorded more than 1.1 million COVID-19 deaths since the public health emergency was declared in January 2020, the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed.

As the U.S. winds up its public health emergency response to the virus, the CDC recorded a total of 1,127,928 deaths — or about 341 deaths per 100,000 people — substantially higher than Western European countries like France and Germany.

On the other hand, the total number of Americans infected by the virus is 104 million, and COVID-related hospital admissions throughout the country is at 6,143,551, according to data gathered by Johns Hopkins University.

The peak of infections came with the arrival of the Omicron variant in the winter of 2022 when up to 5.5 million new cases were recorded in just one week. At the moment, there are around 77,000 new COVID-19 cases per week.

"We have the tools to detect and respond to the potential emergence of a variant of high consequence as we continue to monitor the evolving state of COVID-19 and the emergence of virus variants," the Federal Department of Health and Human Services said.

Meanwhile, a total of 670 million Americans have been vaccinated since the first jab became available in December 2020, making the U.S. the highest administration rate of about 204 doses per 100 people, according to Johns Hopkins.

In terms of the total number of jabs relative to a country's population, the U.S. is lagging behind other prosperous countries, with Spain recording 86% of the population completing the vaccine protocol, while Italy is at 81%, and France at 78%.

In late January, U.S. President Joe Biden announced that his administration was ending the emergency declaration and will transition from an emergency pandemic response to treating COVID-19 like any other respiratory ailment.

"To ensure an orderly transition, we have been working for months so that we can continue to meet the needs of those affected by COVID-19," the Department of Health and Human Services said in a press release on May 9.

However, this doesn't mean that all is well, according to Dr. Ayman El-Mohandes, dean of the City University of New York's Graduate School of Public Health, per a New York Post report.

El-Mohandes said that many of those infected still suffer from "long COVID" or lingering symptoms, including brain fog, respiratory problems and hair loss.

"We have to continue to be sensitive to people whose recovery might take longer. For them, the pandemic is not over," he said.

On May 5, the World Health Organization declared "with great hope" that COVID-19 as a public health emergency was over, but it did not mean that the disease was no longer a threat.