Total deaths in the United States attributed to the novel coronavirus surpassed a quarter of a million late Wednesday, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally.
In addition, the nation has recorded nearly half a million new COVID-19 cases since Sunday, bringing the overall total to 11,485,176, or roughly 20% of all global cases.
The official U.S. virus-related death count hit 250,029 on Wednesday evening.
According to an NBC News analysis, COVID-19 fatalities have increased about 42% in the past four weeks, from a “weekly average of 821 per day in early October to last week’s average of 1,167 per day.”
Meanwhile, an internal report obtained Tuesday by the network revealed the White House coronavirus task force has warned there is “now aggressive, unrelenting, expanding broad community spread across the country, reaching most counties, without evidence of improvement but rather, further deterioration.”
According to KABC, demographers at the University of California, Berkeley have determined that the virus’ death toll has decreased the average American life expectancy by about one year. They also estimate the financial loss stemming from the deaths of a quarter of a million residents could be as much as $2.5 trillion.
“These effects don’t just dissipate when the pandemic ends. We will be grappling with this for a decade going forward,” Emily Smith-Greenaway, an associate professor of sociology and special sciences at the University of Southern California told the TV station.
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