US coronavirus deaths top 100,000 as country reopens

• The US death toll is higher than fatalities from the seasonal flu going back to the 1957-1958 season, when 116,000 died
• The coronavirus has killed more people than the AIDS epidemic did from 1981 through 1989

US deaths from the novel coronavirus topped 100,000 on Wednesday even as the daily average death toll declines, businesses reopen and Americans emerge from lockdowns across the country.

About 1,400 Americans have died on average each day in May, down from the peak of the outbreak in April when 2,000 people a day died on average.

The US death toll is higher than fatalities from the seasonal flu going back to the 1957-1958 season, when 116,000 died. In about three months, COVID-19 deaths exceed the number of Americans killed in the Korean War, Vietnam War and the U.S. conflict in Iraq from 2003-2011 - combined.

The coronavirus has killed more people than the AIDS epidemic did from 1981 through 1989.

Total US coronavirus cases are over 1.7 million with some southern states seeing new cases rising in the past week, according to a Reuters analysis of data from The COVID Tracking Project, a volunteer-run effort to track the outbreak.

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