By Adam Martin
Recently reported Covid-19 cases in the US have decreased from a day before, but deaths have increased as the country’s average number of new cases per day is declining.
The country reported more than 54,000 new cases for Tuesday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University and published early Wednesday morning. This figure can be updated later in the morning. Tuesday’s figure was lower than 67,933 a day earlier and 77,878 a week earlier.
The seven-day average of newly reported cases was 67,122 on Monday and the 14-day average 67,940, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Johns Hopkins data.
When the seven-day average is lower than the 14-day average, it indicates that the cases are declining. Monday was the third day in a row when this was the case, after ten consecutive days in which the seven-day average was higher than the 14-day average.
There were 767 deaths related to Covid-19 in the U.S. reported for Tuesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins, that was 477 a day earlier, but lower than 824 a week earlier. The seven-day average number of deaths per day as of Monday was 714 and the average of 14 days was 840.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an average of three million doses of vaccine have been administered each day over the past week. A total of 213.4 million doses were administered, out of 272 million doses distributed. About a third of American adults have been fully vaccinated, and more than half have received at least one dose, the CDC said.
As of Wednesday, North Dakota is offering free Covid-19 vaccinations to Canadian trucks traveling from the province of Manitoba, the first coordinated cross-border vaccination program between the U.S. and its northern neighbor.
Canada is struggling to get its vaccination program up and running, while the US continues to expand access to its citizens.
Some consequences of the pandemic have begun to reverse. According to a report released on Tuesday on new test data, many students are starting to recover from academic setbacks caused by the pandemic. But rising carbon emissions this year are on track to reverse much of last year’s sharp decline.
In all, nearly 31.8 million Covid-19 cases were reported in the U.S., killing more than 568,000 people. Worldwide, more than 142.9 million cases have been reported, and more than 3.04 million people have died.