Providence, state Rhode Island: Last News

COVID-19 Alert Level is approaching ‘high’."NYC is waking up — its #COVID19 hospitalizations are surging and now New York City issues mask advisory for all indoor public places, now warning that COVID-19 Alert Level is approaching “high. Late as usual @NYCMayor. #CovidIsNotOver pic.twitter.com/nHJd7sHzGV

Meanwhile, the U.S. death toll from Covid-19 hit 1 million on Monday, a once-unimaginable figure that only hints at the multitudes of loved ones and friends staggered by grief and frustration.

The confirmed number of dead is equivalent to a 9/11 attack every day for 336 days. It is roughly equal to how many Americans died in the Civil War and World War II combined. It’s as if Boston and Pittsburgh were wiped out.

“It is hard to imagine a million people plucked from this earth," said Jennifer Nuzzo, who leads a new pandemic center at the Brown University School of Public Health in Providence, Rhode Island. “It’s still happening and we are letting it happen."

Most deaths happened in urban areas, but rural places — where opposition to masks and vaccinations tends to run high — paid a heavy price at times.

The death toll less than 2 1/2 years into the outbreak is based on death certificate data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics. But the real number of lives lost to Covid-19, either directly or indirectly, as a result the disruption of the health care system in the world's richest country, is believed to be far higher.

The U.S. has the highest reported Covid-19 death toll of any country, though health experts have long suspected that the real number of deaths in places such as India, Brazil and Russia is higher than the official figures.

The milestone