The number reflects a decrease compared to 2021, when more than 475,000 died from the disease, and also a decrease compared to the 350,000 who lost their lives in 2020.
According to the information, the final count will differ from this initial data as states review death certificates, and it will be months before public health officials release the preliminary mortality data to compare it with other causes of death.
In 2021, as in many years before, the leading causes of death in the United States were heart disease and cancer, each claiming more than 600,000 lives, while drug overdoses and other unintentional injuries ranked fourth, collecting some 225,000 Victims, the source explained.
If the general mortality trends remain stable as usual until 2022, Covid-19 would again be the third most common cause of death, according to the analysis by the science center quoted by the news channel CNN.
The country is currently experiencing an upsurge in positive SARS-CoV-2 cases as Omicron’s XBB.1.5 subvariant is spreading rapidly and accounting for 43 percent of reported Covid-19 cases, according to a statement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .
This strain is currently the most highly transmissible variant in this northern area, accounting for 30.4 percent of total diagnoses in the week ended January 7, a 20 percent increase compared to the previous seven days, the institution added.
The subvariant was first spotted in New York and Connecticut, United States, in late October, according to Gisaid, an international organization that aims to track and sequence variants of the coronavirus.
To date, Covid-19 has killed more than a million people in the country since the pandemic began, and life expectancy has reduced by almost two and a half years since 2020.
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