According to Johns Hopkins University the seven-day national average of COVID-19 cases officially dropped below 100,000 on February 12 and remained below 100,000 the following day. The daily average has not been below 100,000 since November 4.
Experts note that the infection rate is still extremely high, and that while the statistic is cause for celebration, COVID-19 precautions must stay in place. Director of the Center for Disease Control Dr. Rochelle Walensky told NBC that “we are still at about 100,000 cases a day. We are still at around 1,500 to 3,500 deaths per day. The cases are more than two-and-a-half fold times what we saw over the summer – it’s encouraging to see these trends coming down, but they’re coming down from an extraordinarily high place.”
Johns Hopkins now records that the United States alone has seen more than 27.2 million infections and 484,000 deaths due to COVID-19.
“We can’t let our guard down,” Walensky said. “We have to continue wearing masks. We have to continue with our current mitigation measures. And we have to continue getting vaccinated as soon as that vaccine is available to us.”
President Joe Biden announced Sunday that the United States purchased an additional 200 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine which will be available in May.
