COVID-19 Has Cut Average Life Expectancy in America

The devastating impact of COVID-19 on the health and well-being of the United States is reflected in a startling new statistic.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now says that coronavirus-related deaths caused the average life expectancy of Americans to drop a full year during the first half of 2020 as the pandemic soared across the country.

The deadliest year in U.S. history (more than 3 million in 2020) saw the average life expectancy for all Americans drop from 78.8 years old in 2019 to 78.8 years old during the first six months of last year.

On average, women are continuing to outlive men: 80.5 years old to 75.1 years old.

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The numbers show that minorities in America suffered the biggest impact, with African-Americans losing nearly three years and Hispanics, nearly two years of life expectancy.

Officials say those numbers declined by the biggest levels since World War II.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, nearly 490,000 Americans have died from coronavirus, 1,844 in South Dakota.

Worldwide, the pandemic has infected more than 110 million people. Nearly 2.5 million have passed away from COVID-19 since the beginning of 2020.