US reaches 700,000 COVID-19 deaths

The United States has recorded more than 700,000 deaths linked to COVID-19 on Friday, according to a count from data compiled by by Reuters.

In its analysis of public health data, the wire service reported that over the last week, the country had seen the average number of more than 2,000 COVID-19 deaths per day.

According to the latest health data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) the country has recorded 10,333 deaths related to the coronavirus over the past seven days.

The southern states have seen some of the highest death rates in the country in the past week.

Texas has recorded 1,943 deaths over the last seven days; Georgia has recorded 746; North Carolina has tallied  512 deaths; and Tennessee has recorded 409, according to the CDC.

Pennsylvania and Ohio have also recorded high seven-day death tolls at 370 and 349 respectively, according to the health agency’s data.

News of the grim milestone in the country comes as the nation has continued to see an average of over 100,000 new cases in the U.S. per day over the past week, according to The New York Times.

A bit of good news: New cases are declining, which means deaths, a lagging indicator, will likely fall going forward as well.