The New York Times has gone with a heartbreaking cover that reveals the human cost of the handling of the coronavirus pandemic in the USA.

The image is simple and spans almost the entire page, with a dot representing a life lost to COVID-19.

There are nearly 500,000 dots on the page, which means that more Americans have died from COVID-19 than on the battlefields of World War I, World War II and the Vietnam War combined.

“Each death has left untold numbers of mourners, a ripple effect of loss that has swept over towns and cities. Each death has left an empty space in communities across America: a bar stool where a regular used to sit, one side of a bed unslept in, a home kitchen without its cook,” the newspaper read.

“The living find themselves amid vacant places once occupied by their spouses, parents, neighbours and friends – the nearly 500,000 coronavirus dead.”

Almost 91,000 are projected to die from the disease by June 1, with more concerns raised over the spread of new mutations.

“It’s terrible. It is historic. We haven’t seen anything even close to this for well over 100 years, since the 1918 pandemic of influenza,” Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to US President Joe Biden, said on NBC’s Meet The Press.

“It’s something that is stunning when you look at the numbers, almost unbelievable, but it’s true.”

There is hope for Americans however, as cases and hospitalisations plummet due to the vaccination effort in the US.

More than 42.8 million Americans have received at least the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, with 17.8 million people being fully vaccinated.

Current US President Joe Biden is aware that the program to administer vaccines is complicated, as there are intense challenges of manufacturing the vaccine in huge quantities quickly.

“There has never, ever, ever been a logistic challenge as consequential as what we’re trying to do, but we’re getting it done,” he said.