US Covid death toll tops 900,000

The US death toll from the Covid-19 pandemic surpassed 900,000 on Friday, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus tracker. The toll had hit 800,000 dead in mid-December, just a month and a half ago. New cases linked to the Omicron variant are falling, but daily deaths are still rising, with an average of 2,400 now, according to government figures. Covid deaths usually occur a few weeks after patients get the virus, which explains why the spike in deaths occurs later than the spike in new cases. The Covid pandemic has killed at least 5.7 million people worldwide since it began in December 2019, according to an AFP tally published on Friday.