(Reuters) – The United States last week reported a 25% drop in new cases of COVID-19 to about 825,000, the biggest drop since the start of the pandemic, although health officials said it feared new variants of the virus could could slow or reverse progress.
New cases of the virus have now fallen to their lowest levels since early November for four weeks in a row, according to a Reuters analysis of state and county reports. The strongest decline was in California, where cases fell 48% in the week ending February 7. Only Oregon, Puerto Rico, Arkansas, and Vermont saw cases increase. (Open tmsnrt.rs/2WTOZDR in an external browser to see a state-by-state image.)
At least three new variants of the new coronavirus are circulating in the United States, including the British variant B.1.1.7, which researchers say is 30% to 40% more contagious.
“I ask everyone to please stay on their guard,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Monday. “The continued proliferation of variants remains a major concern and a threat that could reverse the recent positive trends we are seeing.”
The average number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals fell 15% last week to 88,000, also a record rate, according to a Reuters analysis of data from the volunteer-run COVID Tracking Project. It was the lowest average number of hospitals since the end of November.
Deaths dropped 2.5% last week to 22,193. Excluding a fatality delay reported by Indiana, the number of fatalities dropped 9.5% last week. Deaths are a lagging indicator and usually fall several weeks after cases and hospital admissions have declined.
Cumulatively, nearly 464,000 people in the United States have died of the virus, or one in 704 residents.
Nationally, 7.3% of tests came out positive for the virus, up from 8.5% the week before, according to data from the COVID Tracking Project.
Image: GRAPHIC-COVID-19 global tracker: here
Graphic by Chris Canipe, written by Lisa Shumaker, edited by Tiffany Wu