US sees sharp drop in new Covid cases

Washington, March 16 The US has witnessed the lowest single-day increase of Covid-19 cases and deaths since last winter as vaccination efforts were accelerating across the nation.

A total of 40,428 new cases and 589 deaths were reported across the country on Sunday, according to data issued on Monday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The daily increase of new cases marked the lowest since October 6, 2020, while the new death count was the lowest since November 15, 2020, Xinhua news agency quoted the CDC as saying.

Currently, the country averages about 65,000 daily increase of cases and 1,200 deaths, the CDC data revealed.

Key Covid-19 indicators have continued to drop since January.

Since the highest seven-day average daily cases of 249,378 on January 11, the seven-day average increase of new cases decreased by 78.1 per cent, according to the CDC.

Meanwhile, there has been an overall decline of 56.6 per cent of the seven-day average of new deaths since January 13, CDC data show.

Hospital admissions of Covid-19 patients fell by 70.4 per cent from the national seven-day average peak of 16,540 admissions on January 9 to 4,889 admissions over the week ending March 9.

The average number of daily admissions fell by 11 per cent compared to the previous week, according to the CDC.

The sign of progress came as the country has been ramping up Covid-19 vaccines rollout.

As of Monday, over 135 million vaccine doses have been distributed across the country, and more than 109 million doses were administered, according to the CDC.

More than 38 million Americans have been fully vaccinated.

President Joe Biden announced last week that he will direct all states, tribes, and territories to make all adult Americans eligible for Covid-19 vaccines by May 1.

As of Tuesday morning, the US' caseload and death toll stood at 29,492,616 and 535,596, respectively.

( With inputs from IANS )