U.S. COVID-19 deaths on Monday surpassed 675,000, the estimated U.S. fatalities from the 1918 influenza pandemic, Trend reports citing Xinhua.
As of 4:21 p.m. ET on Monday, 675,446 Americans were killed due to COVID-19, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Total COVID-19 cases in the country were over 42 million.
The fatalities are expected to continue to rise as the country is currently experiencing another wave of new infections, fueled by the fast-spreading Delta variant.
"The number of reported deaths from COVID in the US will surpass the toll of the 1918 flu pandemic this month. We cannot become hardened to the continuing, and largely preventable, tragedy," tweeted Tom Frieden, the former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on Sept. 13.