Family members wave goodbye to nursing home resident Barbara Farrior, 85, at the end of their visit at the Hebrew Home at Riverdale on Thanksgiving, Thursday, Nov. 26, 2020, in New York. The home offered drive-up visits for families of residents struggling with celebrating the holiday alone. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
The Associated Press
Month after dismal month, Americans have been inundated by an ever-rising tide of devastating numbers. Hundreds of thousands of deaths. Tens of million unemployed.
By mid-December, five in every 100 Americans - more than 16 million - had been infected by COVID-19.
Those numbers testify to a historic tragedy. But they don't fully capture the multitude of ways, large and small, that the virus has upended and reconfigured everyday life in the U.S.
For that, there are a host of other numbers. Some may be less familiar than others, yet all are just as telling in calculating the pandemic's sweeping impact:
Miles that Americans did not drive because they were unemployed, working or studying from home and traveling less: 35.3 billion (through August)
School lunches and breakfasts that went unserved in March and April after schools were closed: 400 million
Number of people participating in meetings on Zoom each day last December: 10 million
Number of people participating daily in Zoom meetings by the end of March: 300 million
Employment rate of low-wage workers as the year nears its end, compared to January: down 20.3 percent
Employment rate of high-wage workers compared to January: up 0.2 percent
Share of small businesses that are still closed even as the U.S. economy has reopened: 28.8 percent
Drop in the number of passengers traveling on U.S. domestic flights this spring: 272.01 million, a decline of 76 percent (March to July, compared to the same period in 2019).
Dollars the international airline industry has lost this year: $118.5 billion
Passengers screened by Transportation Security Administration agents at U.S. airports on April 14 last year: 2.21 million
Passengers screened by the TSA on April 14 this year: 87,534
Number of TSA screening agents who have tested positive for COVID: 3,575
Number of TSA agents at New York's John F. Kennedy International who have tested positive: 152
Number of people who went to a New York Broadway show during the first week of March: 253,453
Number of people who have been to a Broadway show since mid-March: 0
Number of jobs lost at New York City restaurants and bars between February and April: 233,751
Number of jobs regained at New York City restaurants and bars from April through September: 89,559
People who applied for a job at Amazon.com in a single week, after the online retailer announced a hiring fair to keep up with skyrocketing orders: 384,000
Payments to Americans by the Internal Revenue Service to help ease the pandemic's economic fallout: 153.1 million checks and direct deposits through August, totaling $269.3 billion
Americans' spending on restaurants and hotels, compared to January: down 36.6 percent
Americans' spending on transportation, compared to January: down 50.9 percent
Americans' spending on entertainment and recreation, compared to January: down 64.3 percent
Americans' spending on groceries, compared to January: down 2.7 percent
Total sales of alcoholic beverages during the pandemic: $62.5 billion, up 21.8 percent
Online sales of alcohol in September compared to a year ago: up 256 percent
Sales of tequila for home consumption in September and October, compared to a year ago: up 56 percent
Champagne: up 71 percent
Ready-to-drink cocktails: up 131 percent
Production increase in bottles of Purell hand sanitizer this year: up 300 percent
Number of Purell single-pump 'œdoses'ť contained in bottles shipped to U.S. hospitals this year: 54 billion
Dentists who closed their offices entirely, or to all but emergency patients, in April: 97.1 percent
Dentists whose offices have reopened, but with fewer patients than usual: 65.6 percent
Dentists who say they are seeing more patients who grind their teeth, usually an indicator of stress: 59.4 percent
Games played during Major League Baseball's regular season last year: 2,430
Fans who attended those games: 68,494,752
Games played during MLB's shortened regular season this year: 898
Fans who attended those games: 0
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Sources: Federal Highway Administration; Sivak Applied Research; U.S. Government Accountability Office; Zoom Video Communications Inc.; Opportunity Insights using data from Womply, Affinity Solutions, Paychex Inc., Intuit Inc., Earnin and Kronos; Bureau of Transportation Statistics; International Air Transport Association; Transportation Security Administration; The Broadway League; Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; Amazon.com Inc.; Internal Revenue Service; The Nielsen Company; GOJO Industries; American Dental Association; Major League Baseball.
A man stands in the middle of cable car tracks on a nearly empty California Street in San Francisco, Saturday, March 21, 2020, as some 40 million Californians cope with their first weekend under a statewide order requiring them to stay at home to help curb the spread of the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
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ManPower DC founder and CEO Jimmie Jenkins, 30, poses for a portrait with his sons, Jahrei Montgomery, 11, and Ashton Cross, 5, outside their home in Washington, on Tuesday, March 31, 2020. Since mid-March Jenkins has had his children wear protective masks and gloves anytime they leave the house. Jenkins is part of a community food outreach initiative, in partnership with Martha's Table, to get needed food directly to neighborhoods in southeast Washington. Local volunteers are the tip of the spear for a grassroots community effort to keep Washington's most vulnerable neighborhoods fed during the unprecedented coronavirus crisis which has nearly shut down the American economy. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
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Michael Tokar observes from his car as his father, David Tokar, is buried at Mount Richmond Cemetery in the Staten Island borough of New York, Wednesday, April 8, 2020. Tokar's father had a cough and fever and a home health aide got him to the hospital. Two days later, he was dead, with the coronavirus listed as the cause. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
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Mortician Cordarial O. Holloway, foreground left, funeral director Robert L. Albritten, foreground right, and funeral attendants, Eddie Keith, background left, Ronald Costello, background right, place a casket into a hearse on Saturday, April 18, 2020, in Dawson, Ga. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
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Sheets cover electronic slot machines at a casino shuttered due to the coronavirus in Las Vegas on Sunday, April 19, 2020. The glitzy casinos and nightlife attractions of the city have been quiet since mid-March leaving much of the famous gambling mecca empty during closures due to the coronavirus. (AP Photo/John Locher)
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Judie Shape, center, who has tested positive for the coronavirus, blows a kiss to her son-in-law, Michael Spencer, left, as Shape's daughter, Lori Spencer, right, looks on, Wednesday, March 11, 2020, as they visit on the phone and look at each other through a window at the Life Care Center in Kirkland, Wash., near Seattle. In-person visits are not allowed at the nursing home amid the pandemic. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
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Members of the NYPD Honor Guard, wearing masks, prepare for the funeral of Traffic Section Commander Mohammed Chowdhury in New York, Wednesday, April 22, 2020. Chowdhury died on Sunday, April 19, 2020, from complications related to the new coronavirus. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
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Empty lanes of the 110 Arroyo Seco Parkway lead to downtown Los Angeles on Sunday, April 26, 2020, during the coronavirus outbreak. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)
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A sign reads "Navajo Monument Vally Tribal Park Closed Until Further Notice" posted at the entrance of Monument Valley in Oljato-Monument Valley, Utah, on the Navajo reservation Sunday, April 19, 2020. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
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A message is written on the front window of the Ranging Bull Saloon which remains closed during the coronavirus pandemic, Tuesday, April 28, 2020, in Augusta, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
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Guests watch the "Trolls World Tour" movie in the rain at the Four Brothers Drive In Theatre amid the coronavirus pandemic, Friday, May 15, 2020, in Amenia, N.Y. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
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Rectangles designed to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus by encouraging social distancing are drawn in a city-sanctioned homeless encampment at San Francisco's Civic Center on Thursday, May 21, 2020. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
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Waitress Aubrey Kelly, right, checks on diners Jack Thomas and Lisa Wilson in the parking lot of Vitello's Italian restaurant, Saturday, May 23, 2020, in Los Angeles. Customers are reserving parking spaces, bringing their own tables and even fine china to enjoy an al fresco takeout meal on the asphalt outside the restaurant building. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
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A blanket is pulled to cover the body of a patient after medical personnel were unable to to save her life inside the coronavirus unit at United Memorial Medical Center, Monday, July 6, 2020, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
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Samuel Nunez cries as eulogizes his daughter, Lydia Nunez, who died from COVID-19, during a funeral service in memory of Nunez at the Metropolitan Baptist Church Tuesday, July 21, 2020, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
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With the seats in Dodger Stadium empty, Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Julio Urias throws the ball to a San Francisco Giants batter during the third inning of a baseball game Sunday, July 26, 2020, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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Chaplain Kevin Deegan prays for COVID-19 patient Pedro Basulto while on a video call with the patient's daughter, Grace, at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in the Mission Hills section of Los Angeles, Thursday, Nov. 19, 2020. "These video calls have been a lifeline for families," said Deegan. "It can be emotionally exhausting and very draining, but it also an honor to be a bridge for the family." (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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A phone is placed next to the ear of Antonio Navarro, a 65-year-old COVID-19 patient, so his son, Jose, could say goodbye to him in his final moments as Navarro's wife, Romelia, left, weeps at his bedside at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, Calif., Friday, July 31, 2020. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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Herriman cheerleaders carry the American flag before the start of a high school football game against Davis, on Thursday, Aug. 13, 2020, in Herriman, Utah. Utah is among the states going forward with high school football this fall despite concerns about the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that led other states and many college football conferences to postpone games in hopes of instead playing in the spring. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
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