Covid-related deaths fall sharply while cases surge in United States: Report

The COVID-19 pandemic has already claimed over one million lives in the United States, but it looks like the rate is slowing going down. According to the New York Times, the rise of vaccination and herd immunity has resulted in Covid-related deaths falling drastically and it is now close to the lowest since the pandemic began. According to the Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data, 230 Covid-related deaths were reported on June 16 - a huge fall from the 2200 cases recorded in February earlier this year when the country was dealing the Omicron sub-variant. The fall is almost similar when it comes to the seven-day moving average which is also down to almost one-tenth.

"In previous waves there were still substantial pockets of people who had not been vaccinated or exposed to the virus, and so were at the same risk of dying as people at the beginning of the pandemic,” Dr David Dowdy, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health told The New York Times in an interview. "Those pockets don’t exist anymore."

Dr Joe Gerald, an associate professor of public health at the University of Arizona, told The New York Times that the situation has gotten much better since the Omicron surge between January & March.

"Our level of community immunity heading into this wave was much higher than it's ever been due to the combination of infection and vaccination,” he said according to the NYT report.

However, some doctors have warned the United States may see a surge in cases in the near future as a big percentage of people are opting to not take the booster vaccine shots.

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(With inputs from agencies)