U.S. coronavirus deaths top 100,000 -Reuters tally

U.S. coronavirus deaths top 100,000 -Reuters tally

U.S. deaths from the novel coronavirus topped 100,000 on Wednesday, according to a Reuters tally.

Chris Dignam has more on the ongoing battle to contain the deadly disease.

The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus crossed 100,000 on Wednesday, the highest number of any country.

But for the first responders, health workers, the victims' friends and families - and even those who've witnessed the devastation from their apartment windows - Wednesday's grim milestone is more than just a number.

"We stopped counting how many bodies came out." Alix Monteleone's Brooklyn apartment in the U.S. epicenter of New York overlooks a medical center's parking lot that - at the height of the crisis - was full of refrigerated trucks that house the dead.

"We see it and we're like, 'this is very serious.

This is very real.'

And we're seeing so much chaos manifest outside of our home that we can't imagine how bad it is inside." Tiffany Fare, a nurse at a Maryland hospital, has seen what goes on inside.

"One of the hardest moments was having to see a family member of a COVID patient, say goodbye over an iPad rooms away." "I don't know if any of us will ever be the same after this..." Anthony Almojera is a New York Fire Department paramedic.

"There is going to be a lot of trauma from this for the medics and EMTs who have seen this all, you know, unfold, you know, firsthand." 18-year-old student Minnoli Aya lost her mother, a physician's assistant who had treated COVID-19 patients and became a patient herself.

"...and she's like, you know, 'I promise I'll come home and I love you,' and that was the last time I ever talked to her... Even a few days after her passing.

I kept texting her, wanting to believe that it wasn't true that she had passed away." Elderly individuals and people with underlying health conditions have been the most vulnerable, and almost one-third of the reported U.S. deaths linked to nursing homes and long-term care facilities.

Robert Holmberg lost his 77-year-old father - one of more than a dozen residents at his assisted living center who died from the virus.

"I think about it every night.

I think about, you know, me telling him I'm going to get him out of there, I'm going to get him out of there and not being able to do it in time." African-Americans in the United States have suffered a disproportionately high rate of coronavirus fatalities.

Dr. Nana Afoh-Manin, an emergency room physician in Los Angeles, organized a free pop-up testing facility for poorer and underinsured Americans.

"You know the old saying, you know, when America catches a cold, black America catches the flu.

And this is an issue of our social determinants of health.

It's an issue of our healthcare inequality." President Donald Trump acknowledged the 100,000 deaths in a morning tweet this week, saying the U.S. would have lost 1 and a 1/2 to 2 million people "if I hadn’t done my job well, & early." The president's guesses as to the impact of the coronavirus have varied since it hit the United States.

FEBRUARY 10: "Looks like by April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer it miraculously goes away.

I hope that's true." MARCH 23: "It's looking like it's heading to 50,000 or more deaths." APRIL 27: "We're probably heading to 60,000... 70,000." MAY 1: "Hopefully we're going to come in below that 100,000 lives lost." It's taken the United States less than three months after recording its first fatality on February 29th to reach 100,000 deaths.

Trump has been eager to promote the idea that the United States is returning to normal, and all 50 states have now at least partially reopened.

But as of May 24th, 20 of those states have reported an increase in new coronavirus cases, up from 13 states the week before.

The increase in cases could be due to more testing.

Still, health officials fear that reopening too fast could result in a second wave of outbreaks.