Story at a glance
- The current seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases is just over 54,400 per day.
- That’s a 21 percent drop from the prior seven-day average.
- Average hospitalizations and deaths have also seen a decrease from the previous week.
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says the U.S is experiencing declines across the board in new coronavirus cases, hospitalization and deaths.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky on Tuesday announced that about 34,600 new cases of COVID-19 were reported Tuesday and the current seven-day average is just over 54,400 cases per day.
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That’s a 21 percent drop from the prior seven-day average. Walenksy called it a “really hopeful decline.”
“Each day more and more Americans are rolling up their sleeves and getting vaccinated and likely contributing to these very positive trends,” she said during a news briefing Tuesday.
As of Tuesday, 54 percent of U.S. adults have received at least one dose of vaccine and more than 37 percent are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.
Walensky said the seven-day average of hospital admissions in the U.S. is just over 5,100, a decrease of about 9 percent from the previous week, while the seven-day average of daily deaths dropped by about 6 percent to about 660 per day.
The trend comes as Walensky last month warned about the plateauing and eventual uptick in new cases that worried public health officials about a potential new surge. New cases had stalled around the 70,000 mark in March.
Walenksy also announced new guidance on masks that said it’s safe for people who have been fully vaccinated to be outside without a mask in small groups.
“Today is another day we can take a step back to the normalcy of before. Over the past year, we have spent a lot of time telling Americans what they cannot do, what they should not do,” Walensky said. “Today, I’m going to tell you some of the things you can do if you are fully vaccinated.”
Fully vaccinated people no longer need to wear masks during small, outdoor gatherings even with a mixture of vaccinated and unvaccinated people. Dining outside at a restaurant with people from multiple households is also considered safe without a mask for those who are vaccinated.
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