Washington: The United States, the country hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, crossed 800,000 Covid-19 deaths on Tuesday, a tracker maintained by Johns Hopkins University showed.
The figure is greater than the entire population of several states, including North Dakota and Alaska.
Around 450,000 of the deaths occurred in 2021, despite highly effective vaccines that were first authorized in December 2020 and widely available by springtime.
The vast majority of the deaths have been among the unvaccinated.
“As we mark the tragic milestone of 800,000 American deaths due to Covid-19, we remember each person and the lives they lived, and we pray for the loved ones left behind,” President Joe Biden said in a statement.
“To heal, we must remember. We must also act,” he said. “As we head into the winter and confront a new variant, we must resolve to keep fighting this virus together.”
According to official data, the risk of dying from Covid-19 was 14 times higher among people who had not been fully vaccinated, compared to those who had, in September, the latest month analyzed.
Vaccinations picked up during the fourth wave of the disease, driven by the Delta variant, and more than 60 percent of the country’s 332 million people are now fully vaccinated — though the United States still lags behind other wealthy nations.
