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The United States on Monday reported its smallest daily increase in new coronavirus cases in more than four months, continuing the latest glimpses of hope for the country’s handling of the pandemic.
States reported an additional 52,530 infections, up from 58,702 on Sunday, according to the Covid Tracking Project. It was the smallest increase in cases in a day since October 18.
Over the past week, the US averaged 64,034 new cases per day, which is the lowest rate since the end of October. This represents a 74 percent drop from a peak rate in early January of more than 247,000 cases per day.
However, Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warned at the White House coronavirus response briefing Monday afternoon that while the average has been declining over the past five weeks, it remains “high” and on par with the summer surge when states in the sunbelt were among the worst hit.
Casting a shadow over Monday’s figures, the death toll in the United States surpassed 500,000 for the first time, according to Johns Hopkins University. The Covid Tracking Project, whose data the Financial Times uses for analysis, estimates the death toll at 490,382.
“Since our dataset uses [New York State] reported deaths that do not include the more than 8,000 deaths reported by [New York City], our total death count lags behind other trackers that marked 500,000 deaths today, ”the Covid Tracking Project said in a Twitter message, adding that it acknowledged that coronavirus deaths in the US are an undercount.
On Monday, authorities attributed another 1,235 deaths to the coronavirus, the smallest increase in a day in seven days.
The number of patients currently hospitalized in the US with coronavirus fell to 55,403, the lowest level since early November.
Figures for Mondays tend to be lower than other days of the week due to late reporting on weekends. Severe winter weather may also have a dampening effect on state data due to the closure of testing and vaccination sites and power outages.
