Nationwide coronavirus cases are declining as the vast majority of states report a decrease in new infections.
The U.S. was averaging more than 540,000 new cases per day on Friday, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s a drop from the previous high of nearly 800,000 cases reported on average each day in mid-January.
US Reports More Than 1 Million New Daily COVID-19 Cases Amid Omicron Surge
It’s still well above any previous peak the country has seen. And although cases and hospitalizations are declining, average daily deaths are still increasing.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky warned last week that while omicron is less severe than previous strains, it is still causing significant damage.
“Importantly, ‘milder’ does not mean ‘mild,’ and we cannot look past the strain on our health systems and substantial number of deaths – nearing 2,200 a day as a result of the extremely transmissible omicron variant,” Walensky said at a press conference.
Most states are seeing a downward trend in new coronavirus cases, including states that first saw omicron surges, like New York and Connecticut.
Despite the trend, every state is still experiencing a “high” level of community transmission, according to the CDC.
And a handful of states, including Montana and Washington, are still reporting a rise in infections.
Leading infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci last week said the U.S. has a “way to go” before reaching an “acceptable situation” with COVID-19.
The country must reach a “level of control that does not disrupt us in society, does not dominate our lives, does not prevent us to do the things that we generally do under normal existence,” he said.
“That would be a level of infection, but more importantly, concentrating on the severity of disease, hospitalizations and deaths that fall within the category of what we generally accept,” Fauci said. “We don’t like it, but we accept it.”