Decreases in COVID Numbers Across the Board, Less Illness in Most States

Nationally, COVID-19 appears to be retreating. With 14-day change for all metrics dropping considerably. Cases are down 30%, deaths are down 10% and hospitalizations are down 17%.

The seven-day average of COVID cases has been creeping lower this week as well, averaging around 37k new cases per day. This caseload is still higher than the first wave in April 2020— which peaked around 31k cases per day— but numbers have sunk well below the summer surge. The downward movement is likely due to an increasing number of people vaccinated.

While rates of vaccinations have slowed from their peak in mid-April, they are still admirably high, with around 2 million doses delivered per day. Currently, 46.2% of the population has at least one shot and 35% fully vaccinated. The states with the largest share of their population with at least one shot are Vermont, Massachusetts, Hawaii, Maine and Connecticut.

Finally, most of the country is experiencing decreases in illness according to Kinsa’s influenza-like illness (ILI) signal. ILI measures the percent of the population experiencing a fever according to our network of smart thermometers. The areas that are still trending upwards— Arizona, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Washington D.C.— are increasing only a modest amount.