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 The latest tally marks an increase of more than 100,000 U.S.
COVID-19 fatalities since Dec. 12, coinciding with a surge of
infections and hospitalizations driven by the highly contagious
Omicron variant of the virus.
Preliminary evidence has shown that Omicron, while far more
infectious, generally causes less severe illness than earlier
iterations of the virus, such as Delta. But the sheer volume of
Omicron cases fueled a surge in hospitalizations that has strained
many U.S. healthcare systems to their limits in recent weeks.
Experts have said the bulk of Omicron patients requiring
hospitalization were unvaccinated individuals and people with other
underlying chronic health conditions.
Data also suggests that Omicron may have hit the United States
harder than other countries with younger overall populations, such
as in Africa.
As of Friday, according to Reuters' running tally of state-reported
data, the total number of American lives lost to COVID-19 since the
first U.S. cases were detected in early 2020 has reached at least
904,228, more than the entire population of South Dakota.
U.S. President Joe Biden, whose first year in office has been dogged
by a pandemic that has proven more implacable than was expected -
due in part to many Americans' hesitancy to get vaccinated - used
the occasion to urge greater vaccine uptake.
Some 250 million Americans have received at least one shot, "and we
have saved more than one million American lives as a result," he
said in a statement.
On the eve of his inauguration in January 2021, Biden led a national
memorial observance to honor the 400,000 Americans who had then
perished from COVID-19, 11 months after the virus claimed its first
U.S. life.
The latest tally stands as the highest number of COVID-19 deaths
reported by any nation, followed by Russia, Brazil and India with
more than 1.8 million deaths combined. In terms of coronavirus
fatalities per capita, the United States ranks 20th, well below the
top two - Peru and Russia.
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 Nevertheless, the U.S. COVID-19
death rate appears to be slowing as the Omicron
surge wanes, Reuters' figures show. The
seven-day average fell for two days in a row to
2,592, compared with a peak average of 2,674 in
the current wave of infections. By comparison,
the peak during the Delta wave in January 2021
was an average of 3,300 deaths a day.
Some public health officials have said that as
the Omicron outbreak recedes and
hospitalizations decline, the pandemic may enter
a new phase in the United States and elsewhere.
In the state of Iowa, for example, the governor
announced on Friday that a public health
disaster proclamation, and special safety
measures that go with it, would expire on Feb.
15.
"The flu and other infectious illnesses are part
of our everyday lives, and coronavirus can be
managed similarly," Governor Kim Reynolds
tweeted.
Nationally, confirmed COVID-19 cases are now
averaging 354,000 a day, half of what was
reported less than two weeks ago and down from
the peak of nearly 806,000 infections a day on
Jan. 15. Many infections, however, go uncounted
because they are detected by home-testing kits
and not reported to public health authorities,
officials say.
Over the past seven days, the states reporting
the most new cases per capita were Alaska,
Kentucky, Washington state, South Carolina and
North Dakota.
Current U.S. COVID hospitalizations on Thursday
stood at 117,000 compared with a peak of nearly
153,000 on Jan. 20.
(Reporting and writing by Steve Gorman in Los
Angeles; Additional reporting by Roshan Abraham
in Bengaluru, Susan Heavey in Washington and
Lisa Shumaker in Chicago; editing by Jane
Wardell)
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