Coronavirus Death Toll Tops 300,000 in the United States

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 The US death toll from the coronavirus surpassed 300,000 – nearly equivalent to the population of Cincinnati – on the same day as the first federally approved COVID-19 vaccines were administered.

The country this month repeatedly set and broke record daily death tolls, with the highest so far reported at over 3,300 on Dec. 11, according to Johns Hopkins University. Federal officials believe the total death toll could approach 450,000 before February.

Vaccinations began among health care workers Monday morning. Shipments to nursing homes are expected this week, according to Gustave Perna, the chief operating officer of Operation Warp Speed.

"We're working through the state plans and the guidance that was put out was that long-term health care facilities slash nursing homes was one priority, but as well as the first-line medical personnel," Perna said. "Allocations for vaccines went out to the states, to the locations that they directed, and they are identifying in those populations who is first."

Leading infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said Monday that Americans with no underlying health conditions could get the vaccine at the end of March or beginning of April.

"I had been saying by my calculation, sometime by the end of March, the beginning of April that the normal healthy man and woman in the street, who has no underlying conditions, would likely get it," Fauci told MSNBC.

He added that, depending on the number of people who get vaccinated, the country could be under "that umbrella of herd immunity" by late spring or early summer.

"By the time we get to the fall, we can start approaching some degree of relief where the level of infection will be so low in society we can start essentially approaching some form of normality," Fauci said.

But he urged Americans to keep their guard up and not ignore mitigation measures.

"A vaccine right now is not a substitute for the normal standard public health measures of wearing a mask, keeping your distance, avoiding congregate crowded sections, and particularly indoors. It's not a substitute. It complements it." Fauci said.

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