Feb. 6 (UPI) — U.S. COVID-19 cases are on the decline in most states as of Sunday, while deaths continued to rise.
A total of 37 states, as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, have reported that new cases have decreased by more than 50% within the past two weeks, with New York and Wisconsin seeing the greatest decline at 75% and 79% respectively, according to tracking by The New York Times.
Large cities that saw early peaks of infection amid the emergence of the Omicron variant have seen some of the most drastic changes with Cleveland reporting fewer than 300 cases per day, down from 3,000 per day around Christmas, while daily new cases in Washington, D.C, have fallen from more than 2,000 at the start of January to about 260.
On Saturday, New York state reported 7,246 cases compared with a record 90,132 on Jan. 8.
On Saturday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the seven-day moving average of daily new cases had fallen to 378,015, down 42.3% from the previous seven-day average.
The seven-day average of deaths, however, increased, by 4.4% to 2,404.
The United States on Friday surpassed 900,000 total deaths related to COVID-19, according to data gathered by Johns Hopkins University.
The United States has reported world-leading totals of 76,469,522 infections and 902,400 COVID-19-related deaths overall since the start of the pandemic, according to Johns Hopkins.
Following a surge of demand for at-home COVID-19 tests that prompted both CVS and Walgreens to limit purchases to six tests per person, both pharmacy chains announced they would remove all limits on those products nationwide beginning this week.
CVS spokesman Matthew Blanchette confirmed to The New York Times that the chain had increased its inventory of over-the-counter rapid test kits, removing all limits “on those products at CVS Pharmacy locations nationwide and on CVS.com.”
A Walgreens representative also confirmed that the company had removed its purchase limit for at-home tests at almost all locations due to “improved in-stock conditions.”
Hospitalizations were also on the decline as the seven-day daily average for new hospital admissions for the week of Jan. 26-Feb. 1 fell 18% from the previous week to 16,068, according to the CDC.
According to Department of Health and Human Services data, 110,642 inpatient beds were in use for COVID-19 patients, representing about 14.54% of all inpatient beds at approximately 6,030 hospitals throughout the United States.
Overall, 770,486 inpatient beds, or 77.16% of all available inpatient beds, were in use at 6,156 hospitals reporting.
The record was 160,113 Jan. 20.
The CDC reported that 250,915,858 people, or 75.6% of the U.S. population, had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, as of Saturday. A total of 212,657,682 people, or 64.1% of the U.S. population, had completed their vaccine regimen and 42.1% of those people had received an additional booster dose.
On Friday, the CDC said it planned to release updated guidance for vaccine dosage for people with weakened immune systems on Monday.
Under the guidance, the agency recommends that people with compromised immune systems receive three shots as part of their primary series, followed by a fourth booster dose. The guidance would also recommend that immunocompromised people receive a booster dose three months after a third dose of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine rather than five months.
