US COVID-19 deaths top 290,000: Johns Hopkins University

NEW YORK -- US COVID-19 deaths surpassed 290,000 on Thursday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

With the national case count topping 15.4 million, the death toll across the United States rose to 290,219 as of 12:26 p.m. local time (1726 GMT), according to the CSSE data.

New York state reported 35,183 fatalities, at the top of the US state-level death toll list. Texas recorded the second most deaths, standing at 23,657. The states of California, Florida and New Jersey all confirmed more than 17,000 deaths, the CSSE tally showed.

States with more than 10,000 fatalities also include Illinois, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Michigan.

The United States remains the nation hit the worst by the pandemic, with the world's highest caseload and death toll, accounting for more than 18 percent of the global deaths.

US COVID-19 deaths added 3,124 on Wednesday, the largest single-day death toll the country has ever seen since the pandemic began. It was also the first time that the US daily deaths had crossed the threshold of 3,000, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Meanwhile, current hospitalizations in the United States hit an all-time high of 106,671 on Wednesday, according to The COVID Tracking Project.

In addition, the United States confirmed 221,267 new cases on Wednesday, the second highest daily increase in new cases since the onset of the pandemic, the CSSE chart showed.

A national ensemble forecast issued Wednesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) predicted a total of 332,000 to 362,000 COVID-19 deaths by Jan. 2, 2021.

Aron Hall, an official from the CDC's Division of Viral Diseases, pointed out Thursday during an online meeting that US COVID-19 cases and deaths were actually many more than reported.

According to Hall, the total estimated number of infections is likely two to seven times greater than reported cases, based on seroprevalence surveys and models.

"We do feel as with hospitalizations and illnesses that the reported number of deaths is likely an underestimate of the true number of deaths," he added.