A year ago, it was hard to imagine that 100,000 Americans would become infected with the coronavirus — let alone see that many infections in a single day. But after a ghastly winter, the fact that infection totals have fallen under that threshold is a welcome sight.
For the first time in more than three months, the seven-day rolling average of new COVID-19 cases reported each day in the U.S. has dipped below 100,000.
On Friday, the COVID Tracking Report noted that the seven day average of new COVID-19 cases came in at 97,131 — marking the first time since Nov. 3 that the figure had totaled less than 100,000 new cases a day.
The U.S. had averaged at least 100,000 new cases of COVID-19 each day for exactly 100 days.
Cases of COVID-19 have been on a steady decline since peaking at nearly 250,000 a day in mid-January. That surge in cases was likely facilitated by a rise in travel for winter Holidays.
The decline in new cases has also mirrored a drop in hospitalizations linked to the virus. The COVID Tracking Project reports that about 67,000 people are currently fighting the virus in a hospital — a number that is about half of a peak of 132,000 in early January.
Deaths linked to the virus are also on the decline. That decline will likely accelerate in the weeks to come, as trends in deaths typically follow behind trends in new cases and hospitalizations.
The decline has likely been facilitated by federal and local governments’ vaccination push. Bloomberg reports that as of Sunday, the U.S. had administered 53.8 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
But while COVID-19 cases continue to plummet, the rate of spread is still historically high in the U.S. The current seven-day average of 90,000 new cases a day still ranks higher than the surges the U.S. experienced in the spring and summer of 2020.
As of Monday morning, 27.6 million Americans had contracted COVID-19 and more than 485,000 people have died after contracting the virus, according to Johns Hopkins University.
