More than 100,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 — the disease caused by the novel coronavirus— since the pandemic began two months ago, according to data tracked by Johns Hopkins University.
The sobering milestone comes after a Memorial Day long weekend that saw U.S. President Donald Trump go golfing for the first time since the coronavirus was declared a national emergency on March 13.
The first cases of COVID-19 on U.S. soil were recorded in Washington state on Jan. 20.
In early May, a revised coronavirus mortality model by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) predicted close to 135,000 Americans will die from COVID-19 by early August, as social-distancing measures for quelling the pandemic are increasingly loosened. That was already almost double previous projections.
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Trump has been urging states to reopen after COVID-19 lockdowns. On Friday, he warned state governors to reopen places of worship — otherwise he would override them.
2:21Coronavirus outbreak: New York beaches to open for Memorial Day weekend but for locals only
Coronavirus outbreak: New York beaches to open for Memorial Day weekend but for locals only
Trump said he was declaring places of worship — churches,