On Tuesday, the White House announced its new "tragic milestone" on COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. The nation has now recorded more than 800,000 lives lost to this pandemic.
Amidst the sorrow, the Omicron coronavirus variant continues to spread across the world. Americans are advised to monitor and avoid the areas of infection.
It has been close to two years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although experts have made some progress, the virus is still a growing threat to the world. This is especially obvious with the emergence of the Omicron variant.
COVID-19 Deaths in the US: President Joe Biden Gives a Statement
On the wh.gov official website, President Joe Biden acknowledged the severity of the situation. He also sympathized with the families of the 800,000 Americans who died due to the pandemic. He concluded his statement with, "I urge all Americans: do your patriotic duty to keep our country safe, to protect yourself and those around you, and to honor the memory of all those we have lost. Now is the time," which implies getting a vaccine.
Biden emphasized that there are 240 million Americans who have at least gotten one vaccination shot up to date. More than 200 million of the number is confirmed to be fully vaccinated. Biden higlighted that those vaccines are safe, effective, free and easy tools that best prevent the spread of COVID-19.
COVID-19 Tracker: Number of Cases in the US
On top of getting a vaccine, there are other ways for citizens to ensure their safety. One such method is to avoid places that currently have widespread infection. Americans can do this by checking on the two online tools developed by the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
To combat the spread of the pandemic, many researchers invested their time in tracking down the pandemic's areas of infection. Researchers record the total number of cases, the total number of deaths and total vaccine doses administered in selected regions. Note that the information is constantly being updated at regular intervals. Although data is not presented in real-time, these numbers could be considered highly accurate.
COVID-19 Tracker: Global Map
Follow this link to visit the COVID-19 tracker for global statistics. This tool presents all the countries with their corresponding infection cases. The website typically inputs data here once every 28 days. For interested users, this tool could quickly locate the countries with the highest number of cases, which people should definitely avoid in their travels.
COVID-19 Tracker: US Map
On a local scale, users can follow this link to visit the COVID-19 tracker for the states in the U.S. This tool automatically records the top states with the highest confirmed cases and the highest tally of death. At the time of writing, Los Angeles topped both lists with 1,549,296 confirmed number of cases and 27,352 number of deaths.
Use these two tools to check on locations you might want to visit and to monitor the spread of COVID-19.
Related Article: Omicron Variant: COVID-19 Cases in the US, New Pfizer Vaccine Efficacy