More Americans have now died from coronavirus than in the Vietnam War as death toll passes 59,000
CORONAVIRUS has now killed more Americans than the number of US soldiers who died in the Vietnam War.
The awful milestone was passed on Tuesday, as the death toll raced past 58,000.
The total number of US troops who lost their life in the War was 58,220.
The death toll in the US hit 59,084 on Tuesday evening.
The total number of Vietnamese soldiers killed in the conflict is estimated to be more than a million, with a further two million civilians from north and south Vietnam estimated to have perished.
Yet the rate at which the virus has killed nearly 60,000 Americans has been far higher than during the war.
In the year of 1968, the deadliest for in Vietnam, the death rate was roughly half of that of coronavirus, with 8.5 troops killed for every 100,000 U.S. residents.
The virus rate now stands at roughly 17.6 deaths per 100,000 residents.
The shocking figure comes as:
- Thousands ignore social distancing guidelines as
- The for the coronavirus
- Trump says before entering America
- Pandemic model shows the
Unfortunately, the virus death toll is bound to rise, according to a pandemic model prediction.
Current predictions suggest the death toll will climb to around 74,000 - more than 25 percent higher than previous estimates.
Researchers from the University of revealed on Monday they also anticipate "long peaks" of infection in some states.
"Our forecast is now for 74,000 deaths. That's our best estimate," Dr. Chris Murray, director of the university's Institute for Help Metrics and Evaluation, told .
"The range is pretty wide because there's a lot of unknown factors, but our best estimate is going up, and we see these protracted, long peaks in some states."
The model had previously predicted 60,000 deaths from the virus.
The new findings could impact experts' recommendations on when social distancing could be relaxed on a state-by-state basis.
Murray believes states are opening too soon.
He said his team's recommendations would "absolutely" stretch past the mid-May to early June dates his team had previously suggested.
"If you're focused on trying to protect people's health, then the answer is absolutely," he said.
"It's a safer strategy to get the number of infections in the community down to a really low level and then testing and contact tracing and isolation can work."
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The coronavirus has devastated the , having killed at least 59,084 .
The country currently has a total of 1,033,230 .
However, 140,416 have recovered from the disease.
