More Americans died of COVID this year than all of 2020

More Americans have died from COVID-19 so far this year than from the virus in all of 2020, according to updated data from Johns Hopkins University. As of Wednesday, there have been 353,000 COVID deaths since Jan. 1, 2021. There were 352,000 COVID-19 deaths reported in 2020.

The United States has the most COVID-19 deaths in the world, with more than 727,000 fatalities since the first coronavirus case was announced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Jan. 21, 2020. Brazil has nearly 600,000 COVID-19 deaths and India has almost 450,000 coronavirus deaths, according to Worldometers. The United States is 19th in the world in COVID deaths per million (2,182).

The U.S. has been averaging more than 1,700 coronavirus deaths per day in the past seven days.

Last month, the COVID-19 pandemic became the deadliest disease event in American history — surpassing the death toll of the Spanish flu with an estimated 675,000 deaths during the 1918 pandemic.

A total of 186.4 million Americans are fully vaccinated, and over 6 million received a booster shot. According to the CDC, 65.7% of the U.S. population over the age of 12 is fully vaccinated. Of Americans age 65 or older, 83.7% are fully vaccinated. As of Oct. 2, the seven-day moving average of U.S. vaccinations is 834,161. The highest vaccination weekly average was nearly 3.5 million in April 2021.

On Jan. 31, 2020, then-President Donald Trump declared the coronavirus outbreak to be a public health emergency in the U.S., ordering a quarantine for those who had recently traveled to certain parts of China.

On March 11, 2020, COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. On March 13, 2020, Trump declared a national emergency concerning the coronavirus outbreak as a public health risk. On March 16, 2020, the Trump administration rolled out the "15 days to slow the spread" campaign.

In April 2020, the United States became the first country in the world to record more than 2,000 COVID-19 deaths in a single day and overtook Italy as the global leader in total coronavirus deaths.

In the days and weeks before the 2020 presidential election, then-candidate Joe Biden promised Americans that he would "shut down the virus." As the Daily Wire pointed out, Biden made several declarations on the campaign trail about how he would get the COVID-19 pandemic "under control," and used coronavirus deaths to attack Trump.

Biden declared about the coronavirus:

• Oct. 5, 2020: "More than 200,000 Americans have died. 50,000 Americans are getting the virus every day. 1,000 a day are dying. This is a national emergency. The President should take responsibility."
• Oct. 15, 2020: "We're eight months into this pandemic, and Donald Trump still doesn't have a plan to get this virus under control. I do."
• Oct. 27, 2020: "If you give me the honor of serving as your president, I won't waste any time getting this virus under control and building our nation back better."
• Nov. 1, 2020: "More than 230,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 — and Donald Trump has given up on trying to get the virus under control. He may have quit on you, but I promise I never will."

According to a Quinnipiac poll released this week, Biden has an approval rating of less than 40% on the issues of taxes, the economy, job as commander in chief of the U.S. military, and foreign policy. It gets worse for Biden when it comes to immigration and the situation at the Mexican border — where the president has a lowly approval rating of 25% and 23%, respectively. However, Biden's highest approval rating on issues is his response to the coronavirus — which 48% of Americans approve.