COVID Deaths Hit Lowest Level in Ten Months
Deaths attributed to COVID-19 in the U.S. have dropped to an average of around 600 per day, marking the lowest level in ten months.
Confirmed COVID-19 cases have declined to 38,000 per day on average, the lowest number since mid-September. This data represents a 85 percent decrease from the peak of over 250,0000 daily infections recorded in early January.
It was almost a year ago in early July when coronavirus mortalities last reached such a low level. COVID deaths reached their highest point in mid-January at more than 3,400 a day.
In over half of states, zero deaths or deaths in the single digits have been reported in recent weeks. In Kansas, no new deaths occurred between Friday and the following Monday. Massachusetts experienced no new coronavirus deaths for the first time in almost a year, the Boston Herald reported.
Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins University, told the Associate Press that the mass vaccination drive has been critical in impeding the disease.
“The primary objective is to deny this virus the ability to kill at the rate that it could, and that has been achieved,” he said. “We have in in effect tamed the virus.”
Nearly 45 percent of the nation’s adults have received both vaccination doses, and over 58 percent have received at least one shot, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As the United States’ virus survival prospects improve, foreign countries like India are still struggling to control outbreaks and stabilize the COVID-19 epidemic there.
“I think we are in a great place, but I think India is an important cautionary tale,” Justin Lessler, a professor of epidemiology at John Hopkins, told the Associated Press.
“If there is a right combination of vaccine hesitancy, potentially new variants and quickly rolling back control measures that comes together, we could potentially screw this up and have yet another wave that is completely unnecessary at this point,” he remarked.
