(Reuters) – The United States reported a 12% drop in new COVID-19 cases last week, while vaccinations accelerated to a record 2.2 million shots a day, according to a Reuters analysis of state, county, and CDC data.
New infections have fallen for eight weeks in a row, with an average of 60,000 new cases a day during the week ending March 7. COVID-19-related deaths fell 18% last week to 11,800, the lowest since late November and an average of 1,686 a day.
(Open tmsnrt.rs/2WTOZDR in an external browser to see the details state by state).
Despite the positive trends, health officials have warned that 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, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, has urged the nation to maintain most pandemic restrictions 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, down from 29 states the previous week, according to Reuters analysis. New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island had the highest rates of new infections per 100,000 residents.
As of Sunday, 18% of the U.S. population has received at least one dose of vaccine and 9% have received two doses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Last week, the country administered an average of 2.2 million shots a day, up from 1.6 million shots the previous week.
The average number of COVID-19 patients in U.S. hospitals fell 16 percent to 44,000 last week, the lowest since late October, according to a Reuters account.
Altogether, more than 525,000 people have died from the virus in the United States, or one in 621 residents.
Graphic by Chris Canipe, written by Lisa Shumaker, edited by Tiffany Wu