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COVID-19 has claimed more than 600,000 lives in United States

Even though cases and deaths from the disease are down as more people are vaccinated, hundreds of deaths are reported daily.
/ Source: NBC News
By Austin Mullen and Phil Helsel

More than 600,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the United States has passed 600,000, a grim reminder that even though cases are down as more people are vaccinated, the pandemic is not over.

As of Thursday evening, the nation had seen at least 600,040 COVID-19 deaths, according to a count of reports by NBC News.

More than 33.4 million cases have been recorded in the United States.

The death toll crossed the 500,000 mark Feb. 21, according to NBC News' count.

The number of newly identified cases of COVID-19 and deaths has decreased as more people have gotten vaccinated.

But hundreds of deaths from the disease are reported in the United States nearly every day (on Sunday and Monday, which was a holiday weekend, the reported deaths were more than 150 each day, according to NBC News' count).

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a summary late last week that the number of cases and deaths had dropped to their lowest levels in almost a year.

At that time, the agency said that the number of tests that came back positive for the disease over the previous seven days was below 3 percent, one of the lowest rates in the country since widespread testing began.

More than 136 million people in the U.S. — or around 41% of the country's population — have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Just more than 51% of the total population has received at least one dose.

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Around 63% of people 18 or older have gotten at least one dose, according to the CDC.

President Joe Biden has set a goal of having 70% of adults with at least one dose by July 4, which is almost a month away.

A number of promotions have been rolled out across the country to help encourage people to get vaccinated.

Several states have announced lottery drawings with cash prizes and Anheuser-Busch said Wednesday it would give Americans a credit for a free beer if the country reached the 70% goal by July 4.

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com.

Austin Mullen
Phil Helsel