According to Reuters, the coronavirus pandemic in the United States reached a new low point on Friday, with the country's total death toll from COVID-19 reaching 900,000, even as the daily death toll has begun to level down.

Since Dec. 12, there have been more than 100,000 COVID-19 fatalities in the US, coinciding with a rise in infections and hospitalizations caused by the virus's extremely infectious Omicron form.

According to preliminary research, Omicron produces less severe sickness than earlier incarnations of the virus, such as Delta, while being significantly more contagious. 

The sheer amount of Omicron cases, on the other hand, drove a rise in hospitalizations that has pushed many U.S. healthcare systems to breaking point in recent weeks.

Unvaccinated persons and people with other underlying chronic health disorders, according to experts, made up the majority of Omicron patients who required hospitalization.

Data also shows that Omicron may have been more severe in the United States than in other nations with younger populations, such as Africa.

According to Reuters' calculation of state-reported statistics as of Friday, the total number of American lives lost to COVID-19 since the first instances were found in early 2020 has reached at least 904,228, which is more than the entire population of South Dakota.

President Joe Biden, whose first year in office has been marred by a pandemic that has proven more persistent than predicted, owing in part to many Americans' reluctance to be vaccinated, took the opportunity to call for increased vaccination uptake.

"We have saved more than one million American lives as a consequence," he added in a statement, referring to the 250 million Americans who have gotten at least one shot.

Biden hosted a nationwide memorial ceremony on the eve of his inauguration in January 2021, 11 months after COVID-19 took its first American life, to memorialize the 400,000 Americans who had died from the virus.

The current figure is the greatest number of COVID-19 deaths documented by any country, with more than 1.8 million deaths reported by Russia, Brazil, and India combined. 

The United States ranks 20th in terms of coronavirus mortality per capita, much below the top two countries, Peru and Russia.

Reuters' findings reveal that the COVID-19 fatality rate in the United States is dropping as the Omicron outbreak fades.

The seven-day average dropped for two days in a row to 2,592, down from a peak of 2,674 during the current outbreak. In comparison, the Delta wave peaked in January 2021, with an average of 3,300 fatalities each day.

According to some public health professionals, the pandemic may enter a new phase in the United States and internationally as the Omicron outbreak fades and hospitalizations diminish.

In Iowa, for example, the governor declared on Friday that a public health crisis declaration and the associated extraordinary safety measures would expire on February 15.

COVID-19 confirmed cases are currently averaging 354,000 per day across the country, half of what was recorded less than two weeks ago and down from a high of roughly 806,000 per day on Jan. 15.

Officials claim that many illnesses go uncounted because they are discovered by home-testing kits but not reported to public health authorities.

Alaska, Kentucky, Washington state, South Carolina, and North Dakota were the states with the newest cases per capita during the last seven days.

COVID hospitalizations in the United States were at 117,000 on Thursday, down from over 153,000 on Jan. 20.