THE United States is closing in on the somber milestone of 200,000 deaths from COVID-19 as more than half of states are reporting a rise in cases.

More than 6.7 million people have been infected with the virus and 199,511 have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University (JHU) on Sunday.

The climb comes after many states had seen case numbers decline following a summer resurgence of infections.

The World Health Organization (WHO) advised governments in May that positivity rates should hold steady at 5 percent or lower for at least two weeks before businesses reopen. A total of 27 states and Puerto Rico have rates above that level, according to JHU.

As COVID-19 intensified in the United States, so did levels of stress and depression, according to a study published in the journal Science Advances.

The study of more than 6,500 people found that several factors may have worsened people’s stress.

The biggest risk for symptoms of depression was a pre-existing mental health diagnosis prior the pandemic, researchers found.

Researchers said another factor in pandemic-related stress is how often participants were exposed to conflicting information from the news and social media.

Yet the grim milestone have prompted no rethinking from U.S. President Donald Trump about his handling of the pandemic and no outward expressions of regrets. Instead, Trump has sought to reshape the significance of the death tally, trying to turn the loss of 200,000 Americans into a success story by contending the numbers could have been even higher without the actions of his administration.

“If we didn’t do our job, it would be three and a half, two and a half, maybe 3 million people,” Trump said Friday.

Just 39 percent of Americans approve of the president’s handling of the pandemic, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Roughly one-quarter of Republicans say they don’t approve of Trump’s stewardship of the public health crisis.

Trump has spent recent weeks trying to refocus his race against Democrat Joe Biden on other issues, including promising white suburban voters that he would keep crime in liberal cities from encroaching on their neighborhoods.

After revelations in a new book from journalist Bob Woodward that Trump intentionally played down the seriousness of the virus earlier this year, Biden said of a president’s responsibilities: “You’ve got to level with the American people — shoot from the shoulder,” adding, “There’s not been a time they’ve not been able to step up.”

Trump has insisted he wasn’t downplaying the severity of virus when he compared it with the seasonal flu and undercut public health officials who pushed for more stringent mitigation efforts. Yet he’s repeatedly flouted his own administration’s safety guidelines, rarely wearing a mask himself and holding large campaign events with little evidence of social distancing among his crowds.(SD-Agencies)