Two years of coronavirus deaths in the United States Average number of daily reported coronavirus deaths in the U.S. May 2020 100K total deaths 3,500 February 2021 500K total deaths 3,000 2,500 2,000 1,500 1,000 500 February 2022 937K total deaths 0 March 2020 June Sept. 2020 2020 Dec. 2020 March 2021 June 2021 Sept. 2021 Dec. 2021 Feb. 2022 Initial period Second wave Third wave/ vaccine rollout Spring/ summer 2021 Fourth wave (delta variant surge) Fifth wave (omicron surge) Notes: Seven-day rolling average number of reported COVID-19 deaths. Excludes deaths in U.S. territories and those not assigned to a specific geographic location. Source: Pew Research Center analysis of COVID-19 data collected by The New York Times as of Feb. 28, 2022. See methodology for details. PEW RESEARCH CENTER