COVID-19 deaths in the United States have hit another milestone statistic – one that's particularly sobering for Bay Area residents.
As pointed out by UCSF's Dr. Bob Wachter and confirmed by The Johns Hopkins University, a staggering 876,000 Americans have now died from complications related to COVID-19. That grim and growing number has eclipsed the population of the City and County of San Francisco, which is estimated to have some 873,000 residents as of the 2020 U.S. Census.
The pandemic has hit California particularly hard.
In all, 78,316 Californians have died from COVID-19 as of Wednesday, per the state's Department of Public Health. In San Francisco, over 700 residents have died from the disease. The state has confirmed 7.5 million cases of the coronavirus, several thousand of which have come during the most recent surge due to the contagious omicron variant.
Health officials believe the current surge has already peaked, though a new subvariant of that strain has raised concerns.
There have been over 72 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the U.S. during the pandemic.
Wachter is the chair of UCSF's Department of Medicine.
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