The U.S. surpassed 900,000 COVID-19 deaths on Friday, according to Johns Hopkins University, as the country deals with the after-effects of record spread caused by the highly contagious omicron variant.

But, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that the daily case rate is falling following the spread of omicron, the number of deaths caused by the recent outbreak continues to climb.

It's been about six weeks since the U.S. surpassed 800,000 COVID-19 deaths in December. Since then, the average daily death toll has risen to more than 2,000 a day — a level not seen since last February.

Trends in COVID-19 deaths tend to trail behind trends in COVID-19 cases, so the daily death rate will likely fall in the weeks ahead. But hospitals in some parts of the country remain overwhelmed with patients sick with the virus.

The tragic milestone comes a year after the initial distribution of COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S. According to the CDC, 80% of those eligible for a vaccine in the U.S. have gotten at least one shot.

While the omicron variant has shown some resistance to vaccines compared to past variants, the shots are still extremely effective in preventing severe infection or death. According to a recent study released by the CDC, between Dec. 25 and Jan. 8, unvaccinated people were 23 times more likely to be sent to the hospital with omicron than those who were fully vaccinated and boosted.

According to a database kept by Johns Hopkins University, the U.S. continues to lead the world in both deaths and total cases of the virus. Brazil (630,000) and India (500,000) are the only other countries that have recorded more than half a million COVID-19 deaths.

Essential workers across New York City marked May Day by protesting for better protections and personal protective equipment.

Health care and other essential workers are on the brink of breaking down. With agony in their eyes and their frustrations spelled out on signs, they described weeks of working in unsafe conditions.

“We were unprotected,” said one protester. “We have no face masks or cleaning supplies.”

Workers from Whole Foods, Target, Walmart and Amazon say they have been pushed from being essential workers to front-line workers without proper PPE.

Amazon, responding in a statement said, “While we respect people’s right to express themselves, we object to spreading misinformation and making false claims … We have gone to extreme measures to understand and address this pandemic.”

Across the city, from the governor’s midtown office to Times Square to the Bronx, the message is the same and demands are simple: more PPE, better paid sick leave and enhanced social distancing.

New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are imposing a 14-day quarantine on incoming travelers from states with a high transmission rate of the coronavirus.

"We worked really hard to get the viral transmission rate down, and we don't want to see it go up," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. "So we are jointly instituting that travel advisory today."

The travel advisory will apply to states that have an infection rate above 10 cases per 100,000 people, or 10% of the total population testing positive, both on a seven-day rolling average.

As of Wednesday, the states that the travel advisory applies to include Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Washington, Utah and Texas.

This story was originally published by Lauren Cook and Mark Sundstrom on WPIX.

New York, New Jersey and Connecticut have added three new states to the tri-state travel advisory as more areas across the nation see an uptick in coronavirus cases.

The advisory requires travelers from certain states hit hard by COVID-19 to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival in the tri-state area.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo first announced Tuesday that Delaware, Kansas and Oklahoma will now join the growing list. Soon after, New Jersey and Connecticut added the states to their lists.

States under the travel advisory must have an infection rate above 10 cases per 100,000 people, or if 10% of the total population tests positive. Both metrics will be monitored on a rolling seven-day average.

As of July 7, there are currently 19 states that meet the criteria:

• Alabama
• Arkansas
• Arizona
• California
• Delaware
• Florida
• Georgia
• Iowa
• Idaho
• Kansas
• Louisiana
• Mississippi
• North Carolina
• Nevada
• Oklahoma
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Utah

"As states around the country experience increasing community spread, New York is taking action to ensure the continued safety of our phased reopening," Gov. Cuomo said. "Our entire response to this pandemic has been by the numbers, and we've set metrics for community spread just as we set metrics for everything."

Of the 56,736 COVID-19 tests conducted Monday in New York, only 588 of them – or about 1.04% – came back positive, Cuomo said.

The governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut imposed a 14-day quarantine on people traveling to the tri-state area from states with a high transmission rate of coronavirus last week.

The advisory also applies to tri-state area residents who are traveling back to their home state from areas with a high rate of transmission.

The travel advisory comes as all three states continue to make great strides in slowing the spread of COVID-19.

The tri-state area was considered the epicenter of the country's coronavirus outbreak as the number of cases in March and April soared into the hundreds of thousands and the death toll continued to climb for weeks.

LACY LAKEVIEW, Texas — A Texas school district is mourning the loss of a 16-year-old high school student who died of COVID-19 on Wednesday — the fourth student or staff member the district has lost to the virus since August.

George Moralez, a 16-year-old student at Connally High School in Waco, died Wednesday night after a month-long battle with the virus.

"My George fought so hard to the very end," said Sabrina Moralez, George's mom. "He was the best kid you could've ever met."

According to the district, George was involved in the Air Force Junior ROTC program and was a manager of the football team.

"Our sympathy and condolences go out to this family," said Wesley Holt, the Connally Independent School District superintendent. "George will be deeply missed by everyone in Connally ISD."

Funeral arrangements are pending, but the district said it would announce them at the request of the family.

George's death marks the fourth time a member of the Connally ISD community has died of COVID-19 since August.

Two teachers — sixth-grade social studies teacher Natalia Chansler and seventh-grade social studies teacher David McCormick — died of COVID-19 within four days of each other in August. A month later, Angela Thompson, an instructional aide at Connally Primary School, died of COVID-19.

The school says it will provide a vaccination clinic for staff, students, parents and the community on Monday between 5:30-7:30 p.m. local time in the Connally High School commons area.

This story was originally published by Jamie Burch on Scripps station KXXV in Waco, Texas.

LOS ANGELES — California started the new year by reporting a record 585 coronavirus deaths in a single day.

The state Department of Public Health said Friday there were more than than 47,000 new confirmed cases reported, bringing the total to more than 2.29 million.

Hospitals in the state ended the year on “the brink of catastrophe,” a health official said as the pandemic pushed deaths and sickness to staggering levels and some medical centers scrambled to provide oxygen for the critically ill.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced Friday that California would begin collaborating with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to evaluate and upgrade outdated oxygen delivery systems at six Los Angeles area hospitals.

The collaboration comes as older hospitals are having difficulty maintaining oxygen pressure in aging infrastructure and some were scrambling to locate additional oxygen tanks for discharged patients to take home.

California this week became the third state to exceed 25,000 COVID-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

With millions of those most vulnerable to the coronavirus getting vaccinated, there is some light at the end of the pandemic tunnel.

In new data released by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, the daily number of coronavirus deaths is expected to rapidly decline, but not before things get slightly worse.

“By May 1, some states may be close to herd immunity,” the IHME says. “If more transmissible variants spread in the US in the coming weeks, the peak could be delayed by weeks and the death toll substantially increased. Hospitals in many states will be under severe stress in the next four weeks. Expanding mask use, timely reintroduction of some social distancing mandates, and more rapid scale-up of vaccination remain the best options for reducing the death toll.”

Currently, there have been more than 3,000 coronavirus-related deaths reported per day in the US this month. The IHME model projects could peak at the end of January at around 3,700 coronavirus-related deaths per day.

By March 1, that number is expected to drop to 1,700 deaths per day. By April 1, the IHME projects 616 deaths per day, and by May 1, the last day the model extends to, the number is down to 202 deaths per day.

Even with the rapidly declining numbers, an additional 180,000 coronavirus-related deaths are expected between now and May 1. By May 1, the IHME projects that 37% of the US would still be susceptible to the virus.

The IHME cautions that these figures could increase if social distancing and mask mandates are eased.

Since last March, the US has averaged more than 1,000 coronavirus deaths per day.

To read the full model, click here.