US COVID-19 cases, deaths drop to lowest levels in nearly a year

Washington: The United States is adding fewer than 30,000 COVID-19 cases a day for the first time since June, and deaths are as low as they’ve been since summer. In much of the country, the virus outlook is improving.

Nearly 50 per cent of Americans have received at least one vaccine shot, and though the pace has slowed, the share is still growing by about 2 percentage points per week.

“I think by June, we’re probably going to be at 1 infection per 100,000 people per day, which is a very low level,” Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former head of the Food and Drug Administration, said Sunday on the CBS show “Face the Nation.” The US rate is now 8 cases per 100,000.

The share of coronavirus tests coming back positive has fallen to below 3 per cent for the first time since widespread testing began, and the number of hospitalized patients has fallen to its lowest point in 11 months, Dr. Eric Topol of the Scripps Research Translational Institute noted this past week. For the first time since March 5, 2020, San Francisco General Hospital had no COVID patients – “a truly momentous day,” Vivek Jain, an infectious-disease physician at the hospital, said Thursday.

Michigan, which reported one of the largest surges this spring, has rapidly improved. About 1,400 cases were identified Sunday, compared with about 7,800 cases a day in mid-April.

The virus remains dangerous in communities with low vaccination rates, and getting vaccines into these communities is crucial in continuing to curb the virus. As the virus continues to mutate, vaccines may need to be updated or boosters may need to be added.

The U.S. is reporting about 25,700 coronavirus cases daily, a 39 per cent decrease from two weeks ago. Deaths are down 14 per cent over the same period to an average of 578 per day.

Since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidance that said vaccinated people could forgo masks in most situations indoors and outside, states have followed suit.

Although experts who spoke with The New York Times said they were optimistic, they cautioned that the virus won’t be eradicated in the United States but would probably instead become a manageable threat we learn to live with, like influenza.