It is evident that there is an improvement in both the incidence and hospitalization rates for COVID-19. This follows the January surge reflecting injudicious travel, gatherings and a neglect of precautions over the late December holiday period. Statistics as of Monday 15th February include:-
- Incident cases have been declined to 65,000 per day as of Saturday 13th representing a 39 percent decline on the basis of a seven-day rolling average.
- The positive rate on COVID testing has dropped to 6 percent from approximately 13 percent in mid-January.
- Daily deaths still are in the region of 3,000 per day but mortality is a lagging indicator.
- Hospitalizations have declined to 67,000 with 14,000 under ICU care.
- 70 million doses of COVID vaccine have been delivered to states.
- 52 million vaccines have been administered with a daily rate increasing to 2.2 million for Saturday and Sunday 13th, 14th, February. Considerable disruption has been caused by extreme weather over a broad area of the U.S.
- To date in the U.S. there have been 27.6 million confirmed cases with 485,000 fatalities recorded.
- The CDC recommends reopening of schools with appropriate precautionary measures.
- On a cautionary note, public health authorities have warned of the increase in variant isolates including the U.K. B.1.1.1.7 identified in 40 states in addition to domestic variants arising by mutation.