WASHINGTON, Feb 5, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - The US death toll from the Covid-19
pandemic surpassed 900,000 on Friday, according to the Johns Hopkins
University coronavirus tracker.

  The toll had hit 800,000 dead in mid-December, just a month and a half ago.

  New cases linked to the Omicron variant are falling, but daily deaths are
still rising, with an average of 2,400 now, according to government figures.

  "Hospitalizations remain high, stretching our healthcare capacity and
workforce to its limits in some areas of the country," said Rochelle
Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

  Covid deaths usually occur a few weeks after patients get the virus, which
explains why the spike in deaths occurs later than the spike in new cases.

  Americans continue to die from Covid in large numbers because only 64
percent of the population is fully immunized, despite highly effective
vaccines being widely available.

  The United States has the most Covid deaths in absolute terms, ahead of
Brazil and India, according to government figures.

  The Covid pandemic has killed at least 5.7 million people worldwide since
it began in December 2019, according to an AFP tally published on Friday.

  But the World Health Organization says the actual toll could be two to
three times higher.