WASHINGTON — In the first month of 2022, COVID-19 killed more Americans than the flu has in three years, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows.
From Jan. 1-30, approximately 55,000 Americans died due to COVID-19, bringing the seven-day death average to the highest point it’s been since last winter, before vaccines were widely available, according to CDC data.
Between 2019 and Jan. 22 of this year, influenza claimed over 24,000 lives, CDC figures show. From 2019 to 2020, 20,000 died from the flu, followed by sharp declines in 2020-2021, and 2021 to the present, which totaled approximately 4,000 fatalities.
