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The number of new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations across the country continued to decline over the past week – although the death toll remains high, according to reports.
Cases fell 17% during the week through Jan. 27, while hospitalizations related to COVID-19 fell 10%, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
It was the second consecutive week of declines in both categories.
But the number of deaths from the virus remains at unheard of figures before this month – up 7% last week with 22,797 more deaths reported.
However, deaths tend to lag behind case declines and hospitalizations.
“Even with cases falling across the United States, we could have another week or more of very high death numbers to come,” said the researchers behind the project.
In New York City, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Sunday that the seven-day average of positivity for COVID-19 tests had declined for the 23rd consecutive day in the Empire State.
“We have faced a wave of vacations driven by increased social activity,” Cuomo said in a statement. “The surge decreases.”
“Here and now the news is very good, but keep an eye out for the UK variants and the other variants as they all suggest that more diligence will be needed,” he said.
More contagious mutations or variants of the virus have broken out in the UK and South Africa – and both have now been detected in patients in the US.
Despite the silver lining, Cuomo also said on Saturday that the dark cloud of the pandemic remained over the state – the overall positivity rate in New York City rose from the previous day, from 4.65% at 4.75%.
Health experts are also warning that a reduction in testing in recent weeks could create a false drop in the number of new cases, according to the follow-up project.
As of Sunday, the United States had recorded more than 26 million cases and 440,000 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
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