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Daily US Covid cases below 40,000 for first time in months: monitor
WASHINGTON, March 5, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – The United States recorded fewer than
40,000 new cases of Covid-19 in one day for the first time in five months on
Thursday, according to the Johns Hopkins University pandemic tracker.
This number peaked at nearly 300,000 new cases on January 8 in the country
hardest hit by the pandemic, with more than half a million fatalities.
But now it is back down to the levels of before Thanksgiving and Christmas,
when holiday travel and gatherings in defiance of safety warnings were blamed
for spreading the virus further in the US.
Another encouraging sign as the United States presses on with its
vaccination drive is that daily deaths and hospitalizations from Covid are
also way down.
Three vaccines are currently being administered in the country and the
Biden administration says the campaign to jab 100 million people in his first
100 days in office is ahead of schedule.
The number people vaccinated is now close to surpassing the number of cases
detected here since the global pandemic began a year ago.
But amid the stream of good news, some states are lifting Covid
restrictions such as mask wearing mandates.
Biden has called such steps premature and dangerous.
BSS/AFP/GMR/0855 hrs