The United States, officially the country most bereaved by the pandemic, on Tuesday killed more than 800,000 people from Covid-19, according to results from Johns Hopkins University.

This number is more than the population of entire US states such as North Dakota or Alaska.

Despite very effective vaccines being authorized by December 2020 and widely available in the spring of 2021, there were about 450,000 deaths in 2021.

The United States currently records an average of 1,150 Covid-19 deaths per day, according to data from the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC).

The vast majority of deaths are unrelated people.

About 72% of the US population has received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, which is less than many countries, including France.

Congress leaders observed a minute’s silence on Tuesday evening in honor of those killed.

“We will remember that 800,000 loved ones haven’t made it this far: a lost father or grandfather, a mother or grandmother, a friend, a familiar face in the neighborhood,” said Democratic majority leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer. a press release. “We all know someone who has passed away from this disease.”

This sad phase comes in the middle of the fifth wave of contamination in the United States, which, like the previous ones, is associated with the Delta version.

But experts are now concerned about the Omicron variant, which is starting to spread in the country, even though it only represents 3% of new cases at the moment.

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday that omicrons are spreading at an unprecedented rate across the planet.

The United States is the most bereaved country in the world, ahead of Brazil, India, Mexico and Russia, according to official figures released by the authorities.

The pandemic has killed at least 5.3 million people worldwide since the end of 2019, according to a report set up by AFP on Tuesday from official sources.

But according to the WHO, the actual toll could be two to three times higher.