Coronavirus cases in the United States are on the decline, but variants could erase the progress

Yet the country continues to record an average of nearly 190,000 new cases every day, more than any point in the pandemic before December. Deaths from the coronavirus are still extraordinarily high, with more than 4,300 deaths announced on Wednesday, the second-highest daily total in the pandemic. And in some places, there has been no progress.

Virginia reports some of its highest infection numbers to date. New outbreaks are raging in South Carolina. And in parts of Texas, including around San Antonio and along parts of the Mexican border, the number of cases is as high as ever. The county that includes Laredo reports more than 500 cases each day, a per capita figure more than twice as high as Los Angeles County, which is also struggling.

In places that have seen a slowdown in new cases in recent days, local and state health officials were sharing positive – but tentative – news about the virus.

“Everything is going in the right direction,” said Dr Allison Arwady, Chicago’s public health commissioner, at a press conference on Thursday, noting that due to encouraging measures in the city, the museums have reopened, gymnasiums allow group lessons. and other restrictions could be relaxed in the coming days. Epidemiologists say cases rise and fall in cycles controlled almost entirely by human behavior, and some experts fear that new business openings, permitted due to declining cases, could trigger new outbreaks again. .

Gretchen Musicant, the Minneapolis health commissioner, said state officials were “encouraged, but wary” of the situation, and that they continued to be vigilant as Minnesota resumed reopening parts of the city. the economy.

“We are ensuring that these reopenings do not increase our rates again,” Ms. Musicant said.

As epidemiologists warn of the spread of new variants, health officials are rushing to vaccinate as many people as possible. As of Thursday, nearly 2.4 million people had been fully vaccinated. More than half of the states administered less than 50% of the doses shipped to them.