Average daily new coronavirus infections in the United States have dipped below 100,000 for the first time since early November — and have dropped nearly 64 percent since peaking in mid-January, the latest data shows.
The seven-day rolling average fell below 100,000 on Friday for the first time since Nov. 4, according to Johns Hopkins University data, and stayed below 100,000 through Saturday.
The welcome decline comes after the seven-day rolling average of new cases was well above 200,000 for much of December and spiked to nearly 300,000 in January amid a holiday surge, the data shows.
Actual data from Johns Hopkins University shows that the number of new coronavirus cases first dropped below 100,000 on Feb. 7, hitting about 89,500.
That figure ticked back up to 105,000 last Thursday before dipping back below 100,000, the single-day statistics show.
Meanwhile, according to a tally kept by the COVID Tracking Project, the seven-day average has plunged nearly 64 percent since peaking in mid-January. A total of 71,844 new infections were recorded Sunday with a seven-day rolling average of 90,201, the COVID Tracking Project reported.
However, experts warned Sunday that infections still remain high and precautions must still be taken in order to stem the spread of the virus.
“We are still at about 100,000 cases a day. We are still at around 1,500 to 3,500 deaths per day. The cases are more than two-and-a-half-fold times what we saw over the summer,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Travelers wear face masks in Newark Liberty International Airport.Noam Galai/Getty Images
“It’s encouraging to see these trends coming down, but they’re coming down from an extraordinarily high place,” Walensky added.
In total, the US has recorded more than 27.6 million confirmed cases and more than 485,000 deaths since the first COVID-19 case was logged in the country more than a year ago, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
Walensky cautioned that new COVID-19 variants, including the highly contagious UK strain, will likely lead to more cases and more deaths.
“All of it is really wraps up into we can’t let our guard down,” the CDC chief said. “We have to continue wearing masks. We have to continue with our current mitigation measures. And we have to continue getting vaccinated as soon as that vaccine is available to us.”
The United States has so far administered 52.8 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.Joe Raedle/Getty Images
The UK variant — known as B.1.1.7 — has been detected across 40 states in the US, accounting for 1,173 cases, CDC data shows.
COVID-19 vaccination efforts kicked off in the US in mid-December.
The US has so far administered 52.8 million doses of the vaccine, according to the CDC.
With Post wires
