Washington: U.S. deaths from COVID-19 surpassed 3,000 for the third time in a week as Congress made progress toward approving a long-awaited financial relief package and the country's expanding vaccination program offered a measure of hope.The death toll of 3,102 on Tuesday, the third highest total since the pandemic began, lifted the cumulative number of U.S.
fatalities to 304,187, according to a Reuters tally. The case load of 16.7 million infections represented roughly 5% of the U.S.