U.S. COVID-19 Death Toll Tops 900,000; Illinois Alone Has Seen More Than 30,000 Deaths
CHICAGO (CBS/AP) -- Propelled in part by the especially contagious Omicron variant, the U.S. death toll from COVID-19 hit 900,000 on Friday.
This comes less than two months after it eclipsed 800,000.
The number of deaths, as compiled by Johns Hopkins University, is more than the populations of Indianapolis; San Francisco; or Charlotte, North Carolina.
COVID-19 has become one of the three top leading causes of death in America, behind the big two -- heart disease and cancer.
To public health experts, the milestone is made all the more tragic because so many of the recent deaths were preventable. Just 64 percent of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated.
In Illinois, a total of 31,296 deaths have been confirmed due to COVID-19, along with 3,861 deaths for which COVID-19 was the probable cause.
(© Copyright 2022 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)