NEW YORK, Nov 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) – U.S. COVID-19 deaths surpassed 250,000 yesterday, according to the Centre for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.
With the national caseload topping 11.4 million, the death toll across the United States rose to 250,029, as of 5:25 p.m. local time (2225 GMT), according to the CSSE.
New York state reported 34,173 fatalities, at the top of the U.S. state-level death toll list. Texas recorded the second most deaths, standing at 20,147. The states of California, Florida and New Jersey all confirmed more than 16,000 deaths, the tally showed.
States with more than 9,000 fatalities also include Illinois, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Georgia.
The United States remains the nation hit the worst by the pandemic, with the world’s highest caseload and death toll, accounting for more than 18 percent of global deaths.
The United States reached the grim milestone of 200,000 deaths on Sept 22, and the number climbed to a quarter of a million in nearly two months.
U.S. daily fatalities hit 1,707 on Tuesday, the highest rise in deaths in a single day since the country reported 1,774 daily deaths on May 14, the CSSE chart showed.
New York City Mayor, Bill de Blasio, decided to close public school buildings yesterday, as the city reached the threshold of three percent COVID-19 testing positivity rate on a 7-day average.
Public school students in the largest U.S. city will transition to remote learning, starting from today, until further notice. The schedule of resuming in-person learning is still unknown.
Since the start of the fall semester, the United States has seen an upward trend in new cases on campus.
Experts warned students returning from college and those who travel for family gatherings during Thanksgiving holiday, may lead to a new wave of infections.– NNN-AGENCIES
