0.1% or 1 in 1,000 Americans have died from coronavirus since the virus was first reported 11 months ago, Johns Hopkins University data shows

The deadly coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, was first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. Since then,  more than 79.7 million cases have been confirmed, with more than 1.74 million deaths confirmed deaths. The virus is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

The first confirmed infection with the virus was reported in a patient in the state of Washington, on January 20, 2020, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention Control (CDC). The first coronavirus-related death in the country occurred on February 6 in California. As of today, Saturday, December 26, 2020, there were 331,561 confirmed coronavirus fatalities in the nation, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Given the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that the population is currently at around 330,750,000,  that means COVID-19 has killed one of every 1,000 people in the United States. The Johns Hopkins University data further shows that nearly 19 million people have been infected with the deadly coronavirus in the U.S. The number of infections in the United States is by far the highest in the world — more than the two countries with the second and third-highest rate, India and Brazil, combined.

The death toll hit 100,000 in May. Six months later, the country surpassed 200,000 deaths. Death rates have accelerated since November — the next 100,000 deaths were reported just 11 weeks after that, on Dec. 14.

A recent analysis released by The COVID Tracking Project found the during the first three weeks of December “we’ve seen more COVID-19 deaths, more than in any other month in the US pandemic.”

During that period, the country averaged 2,506 deaths. In April, “when the country was still reeling from the pandemic’s initial surge, we saw an average of 1,842 deaths reported each day.”