(Reuters) – The United States reported a 25 percent drop in new COVID-19 cases to about 825,000 last week, the largest drop since the pandemic began, although health officials said they were concerned that new variants of the virus might slow down or reverse this progress, progress.
New virus cases have fallen for four weeks in a row to their lowest level since early November, according to a Reuters analysis of state and county reports. The sharpest drop occurred in California, where cases for the week ending Feb. 7 fell 48 percent. Only Oregon, Puerto Rico, Arkansas and Vermont saw cases increase. (Open tmsnrt.rs/2WTOZDR in an external browser to see a state-by-state graph.)
At least three new variants of the new coronavirus are circulating in the United States, including the British variant B.1.1.7, which is 30% to 40% more contagious, according to the researchers.
“I ask everyone to please keep an eye on it,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Monday. “The continued proliferation of variants remains a major concern and is a threat that could reverse the recent positive trends we are seeing.”
The average number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals fell 15 percent to 88,000 last week, also a record drop, according to a Reuters analysis of data from the volunteer-led COVID follow-up project. It was the lowest average number of hospitals since late November.
Deaths fell 2.5% last week to 22,193. Excluding the delay in deaths reported by Indiana, fatalities fell 9.5% last week. Deaths are a lagging indicator and usually fall several weeks after cases and hospitalizations fall.
Altogether, nearly 464,000 people have died from the virus in the United States, or one in every 704 residents.
Nationally, 7.3% of test scores returned positive for the virus, compared to 8.5% the previous week, according to COVID Tracking Project data.
Graphic: GRAPHIC-COVID-19 global follower: here
Graphic by Chris Canipe, written by Lisa Shumaker, edited by Tiffany Wu