Earlier this week, the Atlantic’s Ed Yong published a piece marveling at our collective ability to accept the astronomical number of deaths associated with COVID-19: more than 965,000 in the U.S. and 6 million worldwide. “As tragedy becomes routine, excess deaths feel less excessive,” Yong writes. “Levels of suffering that once felt like thunderclaps now resemble a metronome’s clicks—the background noise against which everyday life plays.”
Inured to COVID-19 deaths as we may now be, the actual number of people who have died as a result of the disease is even higher than the official statistics show, as my colleague Jeffrey Kluger reports. A modeling study published yesterday in the Lancet estimates that COVID-19 has caused three times more deaths than the official global tally reflects: about 18 million in total.
Not all of these excess deaths were a direct result of the virus, but the indirect toll of the pandemic is substantial. Hospitals have been overburdened with patients, people have been wary of seeking care due to fear of infection, routine vaccination campaigns have slowed in many parts of the world, and isolation has prevented some people from getting treatment for addiction or mental-health issues. All of these factors contributed to higher-than-average death rates.
“The majority of these 18.2 million people would not have died but for the pandemic,” one of the study’s authors told Jeffrey.
After two years of pandemic life, it’s surprisingly easy to become numb to such shocking statements. But it’s worth remembering that even as many people’s personal risk levels are dropping due to vaccinations and past COVID-19 exposures, far more people are losing their lives than normal.
More than 453.4 million people around the world had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of 12 a.m. E.T. today, and over 6 million people have died. On March 10, there were more than 1.8 million new cases and 7,189 new deaths confirmed globally.
Here's how the world as a whole is currently trending, in terms of cases:
And in terms of deaths:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
And here's every country that has reported over 6 million cases:
The U.S. had recorded more than 79.4 million coronavirus cases as of 12 a.m. E.T. today. More than 965,000 people have died. On March 10, there were 48,318 new cases and 1,645 new deaths confirmed in the U.S.
Here's how the country as a whole is currently trending in terms of cases:
And in terms of deaths:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of Mar. 11, 12 a.m. E.T. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
United Airlines is allowing many unvaccinated employees to return to work starting March 28, Reuters reports. Last summer, United became one of the first major employers to impose a vaccine mandate on its 67,000 employees. But now, as many COVID-19 restrictions loosen and case counts drop, the company is allowing about 2,200 employees who did not get vaccinated because of religious or medical exemptions to come back to their previous jobs.
China today locked down a city of 9 million people in an aggressive attempt to stamp out a recent Omicron outbreak. Residents of Changchun—a city in Jilin province, where more than 1,000 cases have been reported since last week—are required to stay home, though one member of each household may go out to buy necessities once every two days. Non-essential businesses and some transportation systems are temporarily shut down. The lockdown is evidence that China is not abandoning its “Zero COVID” strategy, even as many other countries relax public-health measures.
Germany recorded more than 250,000 new COVID-19 cases yesterday, a record-setting number for a single day in that country, Deutsche Welle reports. Even as infections surge there, many current restrictions around masking and vaccination are set to expire on March 19.
As pandemic-era precautions expire, remote work is also coming to an end at many companies. But as TIME’s Alana Semuels reports, many Americans don’t want to return to the office—not just because they’ve gotten used to the work-from-home lifestyle, but also because people can’t afford skyrocketing housing prices in urban areas where many offices are located. Hybrid schedules, with some days in the office and some at home, may help businesses and workers reach a compromise. But, as one remote worker told Alana, “it’s a worker’s market” right now—which means WFH may not be going anywhere if employees push back.
Thanks for reading. We hope you find the Coronavirus Brief newsletter to be a helpful tool to navigate this very complex situation, and welcome feedback at coronavirus.brief@time.com. If you have specific questions you'd like us to answer, please send them to covidquestions@time.com.
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Today's newsletter was written by Jamie Ducharme and edited by Mandy Oaklander.
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