Coronavirus reported death toll reaches 400K, one month after 300K mark

The death toll from COVID-19 in the United States has reached 400,000, just one month after hitting 300,000, signaling the rapid rate at which the virus spread in the colder months on the tail end of the holiday season.

The U.S. reached 300,000 reported deaths on Dec. 17, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. The one month it took to reach 400,000 is the fastest that coronavirus deaths have reached a 100,000 mark. After deaths were first tracked in late February, it took until late May, nearly three months, to reach 100,000. The summer months seemed to slow the spread of the virus, and it took over four months, until early October, to reach 200,000 deaths.