The United States reported nearly 49,000 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, marking the lowest single-day number of infections in four weeks, after seeing record levels in July.
Echoing other sources, data maintained by the COVID Tracking Project revealed that the U.S. recorded 48,694 new cases this Sunday, the smallest number since about 28 days ago on July 6, when the country reported 41,600 infections.
Citing data from a different source — Johns Hopkins University — the Wall Street Journal made a similar finding Monday.
“The U.S. reported more than 47,000 new coronavirus cases [Sunday], the smallest daily increase in almost four weeks, despite signs of an uptick in new infections in some Northeast and Midwest states,” the newspaper noted.
The fall in the number of new cases came on the same day that Dr. Deborah Birx, the response coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force, warned that the pandemic had become more widespread than when it first emerged in the U.S. early this year.
“What we are seeing today is different from March and April. It is extraordinarily widespread. It’s into the rural as equal urban areas,” Birx told CNN, drawing the ire of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Fueled by Sunday’s drop in single-day infections, the United States is home to an ongoing decrease in the seven-day rolling average of new cases, data maintained by the COVID Tracking Project, and other sources revealed.
The fall in the seven-day average number began to materialize on July 26 after a plateau period of about a week, according to a Breitbart News analysis of the project’s data.
On July 17, the U.S. reported its highest single-day tally of infections at over 77,000.
Health analysts rely on the seven-day moving average to provide a clearer picture of the outbreak, given that the number of cases, deaths, and other data fluctuates from day-to-day. Data reported over the weekend and early in the week also tends to lag behind figures recorded on different days.
Although the seven-day average of new fatalities continues to be on the rise, the U.S. reported more than five percent fewer deaths this Sunday (515) than the previous one (558). New fatalities reported daily remain below peak levels. The number of single-day deaths peaked at 2,740 on May 7.
Last week, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Robert Redfield indicated that hospitals have an economic incentive to inflate the number of deaths they attribute to COVID-19 (coronavirus disease).
As of Monday afternoon, COVID-19 had infected nearly 4.7 million U.S. residents and killed over 155,000, the Johns Hopkins tracker showed.
Dr. Birx urged U.S. residents to abide by guidelines to stem the spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus disease), including wearing masks as well as practicing social distancing and good hygiene.
She cautioned:
To everybody who lives in a rural area, you are not immune or protected from this virus. If you’re in multi-generational households and there’s an outbreak in your rural area or in your city, you need to really consider wearing a mask at home, assuming that you’re positive, if you have individuals in your households with comorbidities.
Dr. Birx blamed “super spreading events” for the increasing presence of the virus.
Each state requires a “dramatically tailored” approach to combating COVID-19, she declared.
On Friday, Redfield told lawmakers the United States must open schools with in-person learning this fall for public health reasons, noting that failing to do so would be detrimental for the development and health of students K through 12 and possibly even deadly.
Nevertheless, Dr. Birx told CNN schools located in coronavirus hotspots should only open with distance learning at the moment, “so we can get this epidemic under control.”