Coronavirus tally: US death toll tops 940,000 and Los Angeles County to scrap indoor face mask mandate

The US death toll from the coronavirus-driven illness COVID-19 climbed to 941,909 on Thursday, after crossing the 940,000 threshold overnight. And Los Angeles County, home to 10 million people, became the latest area to announce plans to scrap its indoor face mask mandate for vaccinated people, according to local officials and media reports. The new rules will be implemented at 12:01 am Friday. The US is averaging about 76,667 cases of COVID a day, down 66% from two weeks ago, according to a New York Times tracker, as the surge of cases caused by omicron continues to decline from its January peak. The US is averaging 60,155 hospitalizations a day, down 44% from two weeks ago. And deaths are finally starting to fall, down 24% to an average of 1,908 a day. Globally, the case tally now stands at 429.9 million while the death toll is above 5.91 million. The US continues to lead the world with 78.7 million cases.