The United States reported less than 100,000 COVID-19 cases on Sunday and Monday, the first time the country has fallen below that number since 2 November. The numbers vary according to the organization that is counting and when they publish the data – Johns Hopkins University counted only less than 90,000 new cases Monday, The New York Times reported 92,603, and the COVID Tracking Project listed 78,000 new cases – but all counts are marked improvements after a post-Thanksgiving increase.
Although the weekend’s effect is most often reflected in Monday’s data, today’s number of COVID-19 cases is still the lowest since October 27. pic.twitter.com/QoIdQCEQQ2
– The COVID Tracking Project (@ COVID19Tracking) February 9, 2021
The number of Americans hospitalized with the coronavirus also fell, reaching the fifth day below 90,000 on Monday, Wall Street Newspaper reports, and the number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care units has dropped to the lowest level since November 20. The seven-day average of new cases dropped 36 percent in the United States, and “most of the country is seeing rapid improvement,” the Times reports. But “deaths remain extremely high”. The Times counted “at least 1,547 new coronavirus deaths” on Monday, while Johns Hopkins on Tuesday listed 1,596 deaths. More than 465,000 Americans died of the disease.
Fatality numbers are falling, but “the disastrous increase in cases in January has led to an increase in deaths”, USA today reports. “The country has an average of about 3,000 reported deaths per day for a month, and in the week ending on Sunday, the US reported 22,121 deaths. The first week of deaths in February is greater than the number of deaths reported for the entire month of June 2020. “
On a more positive note, 9.8 percent of Americans received at least one injection of the COVID-19 vaccine and 2.9 percent are fully vaccinated, The Washington Post reports. An average of 1.46 million injections are being administered each day, and the number reached 2 million on Saturday. Ten states vaccinated more than 10 percent of their populations, the daily reports, led by Alaska (15 percent), West Virginia (12.2 percent) and New Mexico (12 percent).
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