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 COVID-19 infections have decreased in 15 states plus Washington,
D.C. and Puerto Rico, an analysis of the past week through Wednesday
compared with the prior week showed.
In the Northeast, which saw some of the highest case loads during
the latest surge, infections are down 36% week-over-week.
The drop was more modest at the national level, with the seven-day
average of new COVID-19 cases falling 1% as of Wednesday, according
to the Reuters tally.
COVID-19 data often lag a few days behind the actual state of
affairs.
"Certainly it bodes well for us in terms of the trajectory of
Omicron," said Wafaa El-Sadr, a professor of epidemiology and
medicine at Columbia University in New York City.
While falling case numbers in parts of the country that were first
and hard-hit by the variant offer tangible hope of turning a corner,
infections are still on the rise across swathes of the United
States.
Cases are still climbing in the Midwest, which has the highest
week-over-week increase at 14%, followed by the South at 8% and
Western states at 7%, although the increase has slowed considerably
in recent weeks.
Nationally, cases are averaging a still high 765,000 a day, down
from a peak of 805,000 on Jan. 15. Deaths, which usually lag about
three weeks behind cases, are averaging 1,950 a day, up from 1,300
at the start of the month but well below the 3,300 lives lost a day
during the surge in January 2021.
COVID hospitalizations, also a lagging indicator, hit a record high
on Wednesday of 152,555, according to the Reuters tally, but have
been showing signs of stabilizing around the 150,000 mark over the
past week.
"We have to be cognizant that we're not out of the woods, that
there's a glimmer of hope, there is light at the end of the tunnel,"
El-Sadr said. "That light is closer or further away based on who you
are and where you happen to be."
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 Many hospital systems across the country are
still struggling to cope with the Omicron-led
surge. Last week, the administration of
President Joe Biden said it was sending military
health workers to hospitals in six U.S. states
to help fight the deluge of cases and staff
shortages.
The federal government also recently began
providing Americans with free at-home tests and
will soon make millions of N95 masks available
after Biden incurred criticism he was not
devoting enough efforts to fight the pandemic.
The rapid spread of Omicron over the winter
holidays forced Americans to pull the brake on
plans for a gradual return to normality as the
United States entered its third pandemic year.
Classes were canceled or delayed in some school
districts, the ranks of teachers and staff
decimated by illness and safety requirements.
Exhausted parents were left to navigate a
patchwork of school COVID-19 policies while some
students, feeling unsafe in school buildings,
staged walkouts demanding a switch to remote
learning.
Businesses changed or postponed their
back-to-office plans, while the sweeping surge
forced entertainment venues to temporarily shut
down.
However, the recent drop in cases in states like
New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island is not the
only cause for optimism.
El-Sadr, the epidemiology professor, pointed to
positive developments in the current fight
against the pandemic, including that Omicron has
proven to be milder compared to other strains of
COVID-19, the great protection of vaccines
against severe illness and the potential for
mRNA vaccines to be adapted quickly to new
variants.
(Reporting by Maria Caspani; Editing by Lisa
Shumaker)
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