At the start of today’s Covid-19 briefing, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky pointed out encouraging numbers in the decline in new cases, deaths and hospital admissions, but also gave a warning.
“We are still seeing trends in the right direction, but cases, hospital admissions and deaths remain at very high levels,” Walensky said.
According to Walensky, new cases gradually declined over five weeks, with the current average of seven days 74% lower than the peak on 11 January. According to Walensky, the average of seven days today is 66,000 cases per day and is comparable. to last summer’s high point.
In terms of hospital admissions, the average of seven days of 6,500 today is a 60% decrease from a peak on January 9 and is the lowest number of new hospital admissions since last fall.
With 1,900 deaths per day, the seven-day average of deaths is 39% lower than the previous seven-day average, which is the lowest since the beginning of December.
Walensky nevertheless remarked: ‘This average of seven days is offset by the harsh reality that we will exceed half a million deaths in Covid-19 in the United States this week, a true tragic reminder of the scale of this pandemic and the loss it has affected our personal lives and our communities. ‘
“While the pandemic is heading in the right direction, there is still a lot of work to be done,” she added.