- On Monday, the US showed the lowest increase in COVID-19 cases since October.
- According to experts, declining rates may be due to social distance, seasonal virus patterns or drop in testing.
- “We are nowhere out of the woods,” former CDC director Tom Frieden told CNN.
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The U.S. reached a positive milestone in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic on Monday, with the lowest number of new COVID-19 cases reported since Oct. 25, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
On Monday, 64,938 new cases were reported; In October, the low was 62,020, writes Forbes.
Experts believe that the drop in rates in case of no license is not to facilitate mitigation measures such as masking and social distance, even if you have been vaccinated.
“Now is the time to make us wait,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), said on ‘Face the Nation’ on Sunday.
“Now is the time to double down.”
There are several possible explanations for the decline
The current low comes after the seven-day average daily new coronavirus cases in the US fell below 100,000 for the first time since November on Friday.
In December, by contrast, the average daily infection rate was 200,000, and at its peak in January it was nearly 250,000. Since January 12, new business rates have been steadily declining, reports the Washington Post.
Experts believe the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines does not explain the decline. “I do not think the vaccine has a big impact on the rate,” said former CDC director Tom Frieden said on CNN Sunday. “This is what we do right: stay separate, wear masks, do not travel, do not mix indoors with others.”
Other experts believe that seasonal patterns in the virus may also play a role, and some wondered if declining rates are merely a reflection of fewer people being tested.
No matter what the cause, experts believe it is still important to drop the case, especially as more infectious coronavirus variants continue to spread. “We are nowhere out of the woods,” Frieden said.