Recently reported Covid-19 cases in the US declined from a day earlier and fell below 40,000 for the first time since early October as the government’s leading expert in infectious diseases, dr. Anthony Fauci, warned to lift the restrictions too soon.
There were 38,222 new cases reported for Sunday in the U.S., according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. It was lower from 53,215 for Saturday and 40,966 a week before. Sunday was the first day that just reported cases were less than 40,000 since October 5, when it was at 39,471.
The number of cases reported each day is usually lower at the beginning of the week, as fewer people are tested over the weekend. Business has generally declined since the highs of around 300,000 were recorded in January, but has fallen less rapidly over the past three weeks.
According to the Wall Street Journal analysis of Johns Hopkins data, the country’s seven-day moving average of newly reported cases, which eliminates irregularities in the data, was 53,670. The 14-day average was 56,600. If the seven-day average is lower than the 14-day average, as it has been since March 2, this indicates that new cases are declining.
There were 572 deaths reported for Sunday, according to Johns Hopkins data, a significant drop from the 1,725 reported a day earlier. The number is also lower than 678 a week earlier.
While Covid-19 deaths are lower, states in the country are gradually finding previously unreported deaths, causing data confusion. The issues largely involve systems that states use to try to report Covid-19 data in the near future, and not deaths that are reported more slowly by death certificates. These front-line numbers are those that drive government panels and data trackers, like those of Johns Hopkins.
Ohio announced more than 4,000 additional deaths in February while its data was reconciled, and Indiana added about 1,500. Smaller versions have also recently come from Virginia, Minnesota and Rhode Island. On Thursday, authorities in West Virginia said medical providers did not properly report 168 deaths to the Department of Public Health.
With cases and deaths falling nationwide, dr. Fauci warned on Sunday that the US could experience another surge of Covid-19 like Europe if they lift the restrictions too soon and call on former President Donald Trump to urge his supporters to be vaccinated.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as of Monday morning, the U.S. has administered more than 109 million doses of vaccines, and 14.8% of the adult population is now fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
Dr. Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that if there is a new Covid-19 infection plateau around 60,000 a day, there is a risk that is a boom again.
“This is the thing we really want to avoid, because we are going in the right direction,” he said. “That’s why I get so anxious when I hear that I’re completely withdrawing from social measures, like saying, ‘No more masks, nothing else. ‘”
Overall, more than 29.43 million cases of Covid-19 have been reported in the U.S., and more than 534,000 people have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins. Worldwide, about 120 million cases have been reported and more than 2.65 million people have died.