The number of people in the United States who have died from COVID-19 surpassed 400,000 on Tuesday (January 19), according to NBC News. Over 24 million people have been infected with the coronavirus in the United States nearly one year after the first confirmed case was discovered in Seattle, Washington, on January 21, 2020.
California leads the nations in cases, with more than three million as of Monday, and more than one million cases reported in Los Angeles county alone.
Despite the sobering numbers nearly one year into the global pandemic, there was a slight improvement from the previous week. According to data collected by Johns Hopkins University, there was an 11% decrease in cases, and 35 states saw a week-to-week decline in new cases.
The U.S. is far behind its goal to vaccinate 50 million people by the end of January. According to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 31 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been distributed to states, but just 12.7 million people have been vaccinated.
Last week, President-elect Joe Biden unveiled his plan to speed up the pace of vaccinations, with the goal of vaccinating 100 million people during his first 100 days in office.
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