The U.S. is looking at yet another grim pandemic benchmark this holiday season.
The death toll inflicted by the virus hovered around 800,000 as of Sunday, with more than 1,000 COVID-19 deaths being reported every day.
Reuters on Sunday declared the 800,000-benchmark had been passed. Other outlets and organizations had slightly lower numbers — 797,179, according to Johns Hopkins University; 795,727, according to The New York Times; and 793,937, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But with the dire daily death rate being cited by several trackers, the country is poised to top the 800,000 mark this year.
Cases and hospitalizations have been rising around the country, while experts fear the latest variant of the virus, the omicron strain, could prove to be more resistant to vaccines than were previous variants.
About two years into the pandemic in the U.S., where the first coronavirus case was detected in January 2020, the country’s leading infectious disease expert was asked about “COVID fatigue” on Sunday.
“On that framework alone, just vaccination, we can go a long way to getting us through this cold winter season, which clearly is always associated with a spike in respiratory illnesses,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“You know, masking is not going to be forever, but it can get us out of the very difficult situation we’re in now,” he said.
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