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(Reuters) – The United States reported a 12% drop in new COVID-19 cases last week, as vaccinations accelerated to a record 2.2 million shots per day, according to an analysis by Reuters data from states, counties and CDCs.
New infections have fallen for eight straight weeks, averaging 60,000 new cases per day for the week ended March 7. COVID-19-related deaths fell 18% last week to 11,800, the lowest since late November and an average of 1,686 per day.
(Open tmsnrt.rs/2WTOZDR in an external browser to see the details state by state.)
Despite the positive trends, health officials have warned the country could see a resurgence of cases as more infectious variants of the virus have been found in almost every state.
Dr Anthony Fauci, America’s leading infectious disease specialist, has urged the country to keep most pandemic restrictions in place until new cases drop to less than 10,000 a day.
Thirteen out of 50 states reported more new infections last week compared to the previous seven days, up from 29 states the week before, according to Reuters analysis. New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island had the highest rates of new infections per 100,000 people.
As of Sunday, 18% of the U.S. population received at least one dose of a vaccine and 9% received two doses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The country administered an average of 2.2 million shots per day last week, up from 1.6 million shots the week before.
The average number of COVID-19 patients in U.S. hospitals fell 16% to 44,000 last week, the lowest since late October, according to a Reuters tally.
In total, more than 525,000 people have died from the virus in the United States, or one in 621 inhabitants.
Graphic by Chris Canipe, written by Lisa Shumaker, edited by Tiffany Wu
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