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Coronavirus case counts and deaths continue to drop in the United States while they keep rising in the world.
In the United States, new case reports fell this week by 15.8% and deaths fell by 3.6%, compared to the previous week, The Washington Post reported .
The 7-day daily average of new cases on Tuesday was 57,172, compared to a staggering high of more than 248,000 on Jan. 12. The 7-day daily average of new deaths on Tuesday was 715, compared to a high of 3,347 on Jan. 17.
“We’ve made stunning progress,” President Joe Biden said Tuesday in announcing relaxed guidance for wearing face coverings outdoors.
The US vaccination program is pushing down the numbers, with more than half of adults at least partially vaccinated.
The CDC says that 42.7% of the US population and 54.2% of the over-18 population has gotten at least one vaccine dose. Fully vaccinated people are 29.1% of the total population and 37.3% of the over-18 population.
Among people over 65 — the most vulnerable age group — 81.8% have gotten at least one dose and 67.9% are fully vaccinated.
The United States has reported the most cases and deaths in the world — 32 million and more than 543,000, respectively — Johns Hopkins University says. And national health officials warn that coronavirus variants and lifting restrictions too quickly could bring another surge in cases.
Meanwhile, the numbers are going in the other direction for the world as a whole.
As of April 19, case counts had gone up 8.54% over the week before and deaths had gone up 5.37%, according to World Health Organization data.
Global cases increased for the ninth straight week and deaths have increased for the sixth straight week, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom, PhD, said in a Monday speech.
“To put it in perspective, there were almost as many cases globally last week as in the first 5 months of the pandemic,” he said.
“It’s pleasing to see small declines in cases and deaths in several regions, but many countries are still experiencing intense transmission, and the situation in India is beyond heartbreaking.”
Johns Hopkins University says that globally, there have been 148 million confirmed cases since the COVID-19 pandemic began and 3.1 million deaths. After the United States, the most deaths have occurred in Brazil, Mexico, India, and the United Kingdom.
The WHO says 961 billion vaccine doses have been administered around the world, but poor nations lag far behind developed nations.
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