�WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th February, 2021) Life expectancy in the United States dropped in the first half of 2020 to its lowest level in 15 years amid the coronavirus pandemic, data released by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) showed on Thursday.
"In the first half of 2020, life expectancy at birth for the total US population was 77.8 years, declining by 1.0 year from 78.8 in 2019," the CDC said.
The data showed that� it was the lowest US life expectancy since 2006, the CDC said.
Minorities suffered the worst from the pandemic, with life expectancy for Black Americans declining by nearly three years, and Hispanics by almost two years, the CDC data showed.
"Life expectancy by Hispanic origin and race Between 2019 and the first half of 2020, life expectancy decreased 2.7 years for the non-Hispanic black population (74.7 to 72.0)," the CDC data said. "It decreased by 1.9 years for the Hispanic population (81.8 to 79.9) and by 0.8 year for the non-Hispanic white population."
The CDC's data showed that life expectancy at birth for males was 75.1 years in the first half of last year, and decreased by 1.2 years from 76.3 years in 2019.
Meanwhile, for females, life expectancy declined to 80.5 years from 81.4 years in 2019, according to the CDC.
�The United States remains the country hardest hit by COVID-19, with health officials reporting more than 27.8 infections and over 490,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic, according to the Johns Hopkins University's Coronavirus Resource Center.
