Washington, March 1, (dpa-AFX/GNA) – The coronavirus infection rate in the United States on Monday reached its lowest level in nearly five months, and the numbers are going down rapidly.
With 51,204 new cases reporting in the last 24 hours, the total number of infections in the country rose to 28,605,669 as of John Hopkins University’s latest update. This is the lowest daily figure reported since October 8, and less than a quarter of the number of new infections reported a month ago.
The fatality rate fell sharply at the weekend. With 1,097 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, the total death toll in the US reached 513,091.
The hospitalization numbers continued to march downward. The Midwest is now approaching its summertime numbers, according to the COVID Tracking Project. For the first time since November 2, US Covid-19 hospitalizations fell below the 50,000-mark, and ICU admissions declined below 10,000.
There are now fewer people hospitalized with Covid-19 than at any time since November 2, with 47,352 Covid-19 patients currently hospitalized in the country.
The data from Florida remains grim. The state reported 126 deaths Sunday, which is 12 per cent of the nationally reported deaths. There were 5,385 new cases on the same day, which accounts for 9.9 per cent of the nationally reported new cases.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that at least 2,463 cases of coronavirus variants have so far been reported in the United States. The vast majority of these cases are the more contagious variant first detected in Britain, found in 44 states.
The Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization for a third vaccine against the Covid-19 pandemic. The single-shot coronavirus vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine arm, Janssen Biotech, is named ‘Janssen COVID-19’.
GNA