The number of COVID-19 deaths reported daily in the United States fell to its lowest point in more than a year on Sunday, with the country documenting 222 deaths.
The US saw a daily tax cut from 676 deaths on Saturday, according to Johns Hopkins University statistics. The data show that the number of daily deaths has reached its lowest point since the beginning of the pandemic, on March 23, 2020, when 192 deaths were documented.
Johns Hopkins data usually show a decrease in coronavirus deaths on Saturdays and Sundays, amid different reporting patterns of state and county COVID-19 statistics, a situation that could have been exacerbated by the Easter holiday.
“Many states either did not report over the weekend or had no deaths to report,” a Johns Hopkins spokesman said in response to questions from The Hill about the low total. “About 37 data did not report any new deaths, either they were not reported due to the holidays or there were simply no new deaths. The California data portal was broken yesterday and we are in the process of distributing the data back.
The death toll on Sunday is down from an average of seven days of deaths by Saturday of 804 deaths a day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It was down from 968 the week before.
Only 222 deaths through COVID were reported yesterday in the US, which is the lowest since March 23, 2020. https://t.co/WbBcN2canq pic.twitter.com/FAyvg7tp4Z
– Nate Silver (@ NateSilver538) April 5, 2021
CDC Director Rochelle Walenksy said the seven-day average of deaths was down from last week during a briefing by the COVID-19 White House response team.
But she warned that the country was entering its fourth week of “increased trends and cases,” including CDC data documenting a seven-day average of about 64,000 cases and 4,970 hospitalizations a day.
The news comes as Walensky balances warning of the risks still present in the pandemic and expressing encouragement about the progress of the vaccination effort in recent days.
“As we follow with concern the growing number of cases, the good news is that millions of Americans are stepping up every day to get vaccinated,” she said during Monday’s briefing.
Health officials said Monday that nearly a quarter of American adults, nearly 60 million, are fully vaccinated, with 40 percent of adults receiving at least one dose.
Last week, Walensky warned of “imminent death” because COVID-19 cases have risen if people do not follow health precautions.
—Updated at 15:58