U.S. Coronavirus deaths fall to their lowest point since the summer

Fewer than 800 coronavirus deaths are being reported each day in the United States, the lowest daily average since before the Omicron variant took hold late last fall. The last time the rate was this low was in mid-August, according to a New York Times database.

Trends in deaths lag behind cases and hospitalizations by weeks because of the time it takes for people to become seriously ill, and the time needed to complete and file death records.

The seven-day average of new cases has also dropped significantly from the height of the Omicron surge. Though the decrease has slowed in recent days, the average has hovered this past week around 30,000 cases per day, a level last seen in July. Coronavirus hospitalizations plummeted in the last two weeks by about 36 percent, to about 18,000 per day. Intensive care unit hospitalizations have fallen too — by about 43 percent — to under 3,000.

But as cases increased in parts of Europe, scientists and health officials have already been warning of another rise in U.S. cases and, with it, the first major test of the country’s strategy of living with the virus while limiting its impact. Top U.S. health officials reiterated concerns last week about the impact of stalled Covid-19 response aid amid the spread of BA.2, a highly transmissible Omicron subvariant accounting for about 35 percent of new U.S. cases, as of Monday, and a form of the virus similar to what swept through the nation this winter.

A growing number of U.S. states are reporting fewer daily updates, saying that metrics like hospitalizations and wastewater monitoring have become more relevant than daily case reports. Still, Kentucky, New York, Colorado and Texas are among a few states that are showing a rise in new cases over the past two weeks. ...