US death rate hovers at two-month low
Peter Wells in New York
The US’s one-day coronavirus death rate hovered at its lowest level in about two months, slowing the nation’s march towards an overall total of 100,000 fatalities.
A further 523 people in the US died from Covid-19 over the past 24 hours, according to data compiled on Monday by the Covid Tracking Project, down from 680 on Sunday. That is the smallest one-day increase since March 30.
Figures on Mondays tend to be lower than other days of the week owing to a slowdown in reporting over the weekend, and there is often an uptick on Tuesday, Covid Tracking Project has pointed out. That pattern could be delayed slightly this week because of the Memorial Day public holiday on Monday.
New York reported a further 97 deaths over the past 24 hours, the second time in three days that the one-day death toll has been below 100. Before Saturday, March 25 was the most recent time the state had fewer than 100 deaths in a single day.
Massachusetts and Vermont — with 44 and 37 deaths, respectively — had the next highest one-day increases.
Since the pandemic began, 92,646 people in the US have died from coronavirus, according to Covid Tracking Project, which does not count so-called probable deaths. Johns Hopkins University, which does count those fatalities, put the US death toll at 98,184 as of Monday afternoon.