The coronavirus death toll in the United States surpassed 50,000 Friday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
America has seen more than 886,000 total cases of COVID-19. With both its death toll and total number of COVID-19 cases, the United States surpasses all other countries.
In comparison, the death toll for Americans killed in action or in non-combat situations in regards to the Vietnam War is just about 58,000 to date. That tally began in 1956.
The data from Johns Hopkins also reveals that there have been over 124,000 hospitalizations related to the virus and over 4.692 million tests for coronavirus have been conducted in the United States.
Globally, there have been about 195,000 deaths associated with the virus.
The milestone comes as the U.S. news cycle is consumed by Thursday night comments from President Donald Trump, who seemed to suggest that injecting disinfectant or light in some way could act as a possible treatment for COVID-19. Lysol released a statement urging consumers not to ingest its products, and the topic dominated much of the conversation around the pandemic, which has virtually shut down the American economy for weeks and changed the country’s way of life.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany blamed the media Friday for the negative attention Trump’s comments about injecting disinfectant has received.
“President Trump has repeatedly said that Americans should consult with medical doctors regarding coronavirus treatment, a point that he emphasized again during yesterday’s briefing,” McEnany said in a statement. “Leave it to the media to irresponsibly take President Trump out of context and run with negative headlines.”