Making up 1 million deaths: Where Covid killed
From nursing homes to prisons, measuring the pandemic's U.S. death toll.
More than 1 million lives have been lost to Covid-19 in the United States.
Approximately 346,000 lives were lost in the pandemic’s first year. And even with widespread availability of vaccinations in 2021, an additional 482,000 lives were lost that year, with another 171,000 deaths occurring this year through early May.
The country has lost a significant portion of its elderly population, as well as health care workers, first responders, essential workers and others. Here’s a glimpse into some of the groups that make up that 1 million.
Nursing homes
Close quarters filled with elderly residents made conditions in nursing homes prime for the spread of Covid.
More than 150,000 nursing home residents have died of Covid, according to data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. In addition, 2,300 nursing home staffers also died. In February, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported more than 200,000 deaths after combining resident and staff fatalities.
Seniors
Older adults are more likely to have pre-existing medical conditions or compromised immune systems, which make Covid far more deadlier than younger people.
Nearly 740,000 seniors died from Covid, or 1 out of every 100 seniors in the country. Seniors account for the vast majority of Covid deaths in the U.S., with about 75 percent of all deaths being people 65 and older, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That’s despite seniors being among the first people to be vaccinated, and the most vaccinated group when compared to younger people.
Prisons
The coronavirus spread easily at state and federal prisons across the country, where inmates were packed in poorly maintained facilities without the ability to maintain physical distance from one another.
More than 2,800 incarcerated people died of Covid as of May 5, and nearly 300 prison staff members also died, according to data from the COVID Prison Project, an organization of public health scientists.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities hold tens of thousands of people annually. Eight immigrants have died of Covid while in custody, according to a 2020 House Committee report.
Some prisons even released inmates early to limit the spread of Covid.
Meatpacking plants
The true number of cases and deaths at meatpacking and processing facilities is unknown, as many of these workplaces did not require cases to be reported. But at least 59,000 meatpacking workers contracted Covid, with 269 dying in 2020, according to a U.S. House report released in October. The report found that the Covid cases were triple earlier estimates put out by the Food and Environment Reporting Network, a news organization that covers the food industry.
The report found that meatpacking companies failed to safeguard employees’ health by continuing to employ practices that led to crowded facilities. The report named five of the largest meatpacking companies including Tyson, which saw 151 employee deaths; JBS, which lost 62 employees; Smithfield, which lost 25 employees and Cargill, which also saw 25 people dying of Covid. Six workers from National Beef also died.
Deaths of Black people
Covid fatalities were initially higher in communities that traditionally lacked access to equitable health care.
Nearly 142,000 Black people in the U.S. died of Covid, accounting for 14 percent of the country’s Covid deaths, according to data from the CDC.
In cities like Chicago, Black residents accounted for almost 70 percent of the deaths in the early months of the pandemic, while making up just 30 percent of the city’s population. Similar disparities were found in Detroit, Philadelphia and Milwaukee.
During the peak of the first omicron wave – in January and February this year – middle-aged adults were the majority of Covid deaths among Black people.
Deaths among Latinos
The pandemic’s impact on Latinos led one global health expert to declare that the coronavirus is causing "the historic decimation" of the Latino community.
An estimated 160,000 Latinos died of Covid in the U.S., accounting for 16 percent of Covid deaths in the country.
Like Black communities, similar disparities with Covid deaths occurred in cities like Austin, where Latinos accounted for 34 percent of the city’s population but half of the Covid cases. In Los Angeles County, the mortality rate for Latinos rose by 48 percent during the pandemic.
Latino patients were more likely to be hospitalized or die than white patients, according to one University of California study, and in some cases, younger Latinos represented an outsize portion of Covid deaths when compared to deaths among white people.
Deaths among Asians
About 31,000 Asian people died of Covid in the U.S. as of May 4, according to CDC data. Asians accounted for 3 percent of all deaths in the country.
In the health profession, Filipino Americans make up 4 percent of registered nurses, but accounted for 25 percent of the registered nurses who died of Covid as of last May, according to the National Nurses United, a nursing union.
In New York and San Francisco, Asian communities were among the hardest hit when the pandemic started.
Police officers
Police officers were one of the front-line worker groups that did not have the ability to isolate at home.
At least 600 police officers died from Covid as of April, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, which tracks fallen officers.
Covid was the leading cause of death for police officers last year.
Health care workers
Health care workers were the first on the front lines of the pandemic – and still are.
About 3,600 health care workers died in 2020, according to a Guardian and Kaiser Health News investigation.
When the pandemic started, health care workers were working nonstop shifts, often without the proper protective equipment to keep from getting sick themselves.
The pandemic may have a long-lasting impact on health care professionals who have suffered mental trauma – with nearly 1 in 5 workers calling it quits.