U.S. death toll from coronavirus tops 100,000
More than 100,000 people have died from coronavirus in the U.S., the highest death toll of any nation, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University. There have been nearly 1.7 million confirmed cases of the virus across the country (out of more than 5.6 million cases worldwide).
New York continues to have the highest number of deaths of any state in the U.S., with more than 29,000. New Jersey, the state with the second-highest toll, has lost over 11,000 people to the illness.
CBS News has collected stories of some of the lives lost to coronavirus. Among them are nurses, grocery store clerks, a former White House butler, beloved actors and singers, a mother and son who died nine days apart, a 45-year-old police officer, a 25-year-old master's student, and many more people from all walks of life.
The CDC reports that at least 291 doctors, nurses and other health care workers in the U.S. have died — many of them likely infected on the job while caring for the sick.
The virus has had a disproportionate impact on people of color. The African American and Latin American communities in particular have been afflicted with high numbers of cases and a greater share of fatalities.
In New York City, the country's coronavirus epicenter, the Bronx and Queens have reported the most cases — both areas with more low-income neighborhoods and with high populations of people of color. Some ZIP codes in the city have double the infection rate of New York's general population.
At the height of New York's coronavirus outbreak, the single-day COVID-19 death toll in New York was close to 800 for several days in a row in April. On Tuesday, the state's daily death toll was down to 73, a number that Governor Andrew Cuomo noted was still a tragedy.
Despite the grim milestone, states across the U.S. are going ahead with plans to reopen.
Texas, which has entered the second phase of its reopening, reported its largest single-day increase in confirmed cases since the pandemic began last week.
The Panhandle town of Dumas, Texas, recorded the highest per capita number of cases in the state. One in 41 residents there have tested positive for COVID-19, according to CBS Houston affiliate KHOU-TV. The outbreak is believed to be tied to meatpacking plants. Governor Greg Abbott has delayed reopening plans in four Panhandle counties.
A significant portion of coronavirus deaths are occurring in nursing homes across the country. Just last week, over 30% of total coronavirus deaths were connected to nursing homes.
A lack of staff at these facilities may have made the problem worse. CBS News found that roughly 1 in 15 U.S. nursing homes was cited last year for failing to meet standards for "sufficient nursing staff."
A different kind of shortage has made the Navajo Nation, which covers land in New Mexico, Arizona and Utah, a target of the pandemic: About 30% of the homes there do not have running water. During a time when hand-washing is critical, that lack of infrastructure has contributed to the community having what its president says is the highest COVID-19 infection rate per capita in the U.S.
In an attempt to slow the spread the virus, Navajo Nation spent the weekend under a strict 57-hour lockdown. Gallup, New Mexico, closed all roads into the city earlier this month in order to stymie its rampant outbreak.
China, where the coronavirus outbreak began in late 2019, reported no new confirmed cases Saturday for the first time since it began announcing infections in January. China also reported no new deaths and only two suspected cases in 24 hours.
