COVID-19 cases drops in United States as spring wave slows

As per the latest news shred by The Washington Post, in the United States, COVID-19 cases continue to decline as spring rises begin in March.

The daily average of new COVID-19 cases are continuously decline and reached the lowest point from mid-October, dropped below 50,000. More than 40 states reported a low count of new cases and the hospitals in Michigan and the Midwest are not looking at the same count of new COVID patients as seen in mid-April.

A biostatistician at the University of Florida, Natalie Dean told the newspaper, “Things are all very encouraging…because so many people are vaccinated and because there had already been a fair amount of infection and because we’re moving into the spring”.

She also added, “There could be smaller, local flare-ups, but in general, things are looking really good as move into the summer”.

During the same time, the cases are significantly increasing on the West Coast. The newspaper also reported, Oregon has reported a jump of 43% in the new COVID cases over the past two years and Washington reported at the same time a 22% increase in new cases. Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming have also reported modest increases.

In some states, infectious cases are increasing due to the contagious variant. The B.1.1.7 version, first identified in the U.K., now represents about 60% of new cases in the country, according to the CDC.

The Washington Post reported that vaccination has protected the most vulnerable groups, and now young people between the ages of 20–29 see older patients in hospitals. According to the latest CDC tally, updated on Sunday, the U.S. has given more than 245 vaccinations. About 56% of adults have received at least one dose, and 40% are considered fully vaccinated.

However, vaccination rates have plummeted since mid-April, when the country peaked at 3.4 million shots per day. Now this average is around 2.7 million per day, and the rate is falling in every state.

“Now it’s hard work to get people who are in the middle who are like wishy-washy – ‘Do I want a vaccine or do I not?’ “Janis Orlovsky, chief health care officer of the Association of American Medical Colleges, told the newspaper.

According to The New York Times, “where people are vaccinated enough to get rid of the virus, they cannot reach” herd immunity. “As vaccination rates continue to decline and variants continue to emerge, coronaviruses are will become the most dangerous threat that spreads across the country.

“The virus is unlikely to go away,” Rustom Antia, an evolutionary biologist at Emory University, told the newspaper. He also added, “But we want to do all we can to check that it’s likely to become a mild infection”.