US crosses 600,000 deaths from virus; vaccination rates slowing

WASHINGTON • The United States crossed the grim milestone of 600,000 Covid-19 deaths, as slowing vaccination rates threaten the target of having 70 per cent of American adults receive at least one shot by July 4.

The early success of the US vaccine roll-out has had a huge impact on the pace of Covid-19 fatalities in the country. It took 113 days to go from 500,000 US Covid-19 deaths in total to 600,000 - the second-slowest 100,000-death jump since the pandemic began.

The nation previously went from 400,000 to 500,000 deaths in just 35 days.

"My heart goes out to those who have lost a loved one... We have more work to do to beat this virus, and now is not the time to let our guard down," US President Joe Biden said on the sidelines of Nato meetings in Brussels, urging people to get vaccinated.

The US seven-day Covid-19 death average has fallen by almost 90 per cent from its peak in January. The country repor-ted 18,587 coronavirus-related deaths last month - about 81 per cent less than in January, Reuters data showed.

While the epicentre of the pandemic has shifted to countries such as Brazil and India in recent months, the US remains the hardest-hit nation in terms of cumulative deaths.

But it has so far inoculated 166 million adults with at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), although the rate of shots administered has dropped significantly from a mid-April peak.

The average seven-day Covid-19 hospitalisation number has also plummeted since April. On June 2, the total number of hospitalised patients fell below 20,000 for the first time since June 24 last year.

However, hospitalisation among teenagers has increased as more easily transmitted virus variants have begun to spread, recent CDC data shows.

The rate of hospitalisation due to Covid-19 increased among those aged 12 to 17 in April to 1.3 per 100,000 people from a lower rate in mid-March, the agency reported.

Overall, daily new Covid-19 cases have been dropping since March, with the country reporting the lowest number of cases per capita last month, according to a Reuters analysis.

With vaccination down to about 1.1 million doses a day last week - around 67 per cent lower than the highest seven-day rate - the Biden administration and state governors have come up with all manner of incentives to get unvaccinated people to roll up their sleeves.

These include free childcare and rides to vaccination centres, extended Friday night hours at pharmacies and the chance to win US$1 million (S$1.33 million) or college scholarships in a lottery.

As at Sunday, nearly 52 per cent of the US population has received a first vaccine dose, according to the CDC.

REUTERS