U.S. coronavirus cases drop. with exceptions in some western states .

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Sat, 2021-05-01 12:15 — mike kraft

U.S. coronavirus cases drop as spring wave of infections ebbs In 42 states and D.C., lower caseloads have been reported the past two weeks, and nationally, cases are at their lowest since October. Joel Achenbach, Dan Keating, Jacqueline Dupree Washington Post

The spring wave of coronavirus infections that began in March is subsiding in most of the country, with 42 states and D.C. reporting lower caseloads for the past two weeks. Hospitals in hard-hit Michigan and other Upper Midwest states that were flooded with patients in mid-April are discharging more than they’re admitting.

The daily average of new infections nationwide has dropped to the lowest level since mid-October. Many cities are rapidly reopening after 14 months of restrictions. The mayor of virus-ravaged New York City, Bill de Blasio (D), said he plans to have the city fully open by July 1.

The positive trends are not uniform across the map, however. The Pacific Northwest is seeing a surge in cases amid the spread of coronavirus variants. Oregon is the hottest of the hot spots, and Gov. Kate Brown (D) declared that the state is moving backward. ...

Infectious-disease experts emphasize that the public needs to remain vigilant even as government restrictions on activities are incrementally lifted. The country is averaging about 51,000 cases a day, the lowest since the second week of October — but still many times higher than what public health officials say is necessary if the pandemic is to be declared under control.

Hospitalizations and deaths are also down nationally, although more modestly, as those numbers tend to trail, by several weeks, the rate of infections. The seven-day average for daily deaths stood Friday at 689, a dismayingly high number but barely more than a fifth of the 3,347 daily average recorded Jan. 17 during the peak of the winter surge.

Multiple factors are driving the ebbing of the spring wave, said Natalie E. Dean, a University of Florida biostatistics expert.

“Things are all very encouraging, even despite the circulation of these variants, because so many people are vaccinated and because there had already been a fair amount of infection and because we’re moving into the spring,” she said. “There could be smaller, local flare-ups, but in general, things are looking really good as we move into the summer.”

The exceptions can be found, mainly, in the American West. Oregon has shown the sharpest increase in cases, up 42 percent in the past two weeks, followed by Washington state at 22 percent, according to a Washington Post analysis of government data. More modest increases have been reported in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming. ...

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