US coronavirus update: Deaths top 220,000, says Johns Hopkins University

US COVID-19 deaths surpassed 220,000, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

With the national caseload topping 8.2 million, the death toll across the United States rose to 220,020 as of 4.25 p.m. local time (2025 GMT), according to the CSSE, Xinhua news agency reported.

New York state reported 33,366 fatalities, at the top of the US state-level death toll list. Texas recorded the second most deaths of 17,468. The states of California, New Jersey and Florida all confirmed more than 16,000 deaths, the tally showed.

States with more than 7,000 fatalities also include Massachusetts, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Michigan.

The United States remains the nation hit the worst by the pandemic, with the world's highest caseload and death toll, accounting for nearly 20 per cent of the global deaths.

The United States reached the grim milestone of 100,000 coronavirus deaths on May 27 and 200,000 deaths on September 22.

Furthermore, an updated model forecast by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington shows that 389,087 deaths may have been caused by COVID-19 in the United States by February 1, 2021, based on current projection scenario.

--IANS

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