Jane Hassebroek waits in line to receive a COVID-19 vaccination outside the American Museum of Natural History, with her family in Manhattan, New York City
WASHINGTON, May 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — US deaths from COVID-19 last week fell to their lowest in nearly 14 months and the number of new cases continued to decline for a fifth week in a row.
Deaths for the week ended May 16 totaled 4,165, the lowest weekly death toll since March 2020, when the country reported 2,293 deaths. On average about 600 people died from COVID-19 each day, down from a peak of over 3,000 deaths per day for most of January.
About 37 per cent of the country’s population has been fully vaccinated as of Sunday, and 47 per cent has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
New Hampshire leads the country with 85 per cent of its residents receiving at least one dose, followed by Vermont at 65 per cent and Massachusetts at 62per cent.
The rate of vaccinations, however, has been slowing for four straight weeks. In the past seven days, an average of 2 million vaccine doses were administered per day, which is down 2 per cent from the previous week after falling 17 per cent in the prior week.
New cases of COVID-19 fell 20 per cent last week to 233,000, the lowest since June. Only four out of 50 states logged week-over-week increases in new cases, including Alabama which reported over 9,000 new infections last week after processing a backlog of tests.
Excluding that backlog, Colorado led the nation in new cases per capita, overtaking Michigan, although new infections are falling in both states.
The lowest rates of infection based on population were in New Jersey, Oklahoma and California.
Nationwide, the average number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals fell 12 per cent, the fourth weekly drop in a row. — NNN-AGENCIES
