The number of Covid deaths in America has fallen to a new record low and the lowest level since March 2020, official data shows.
Figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed that there were 1,160 deaths in the week ending April 19, 2023, the last available.
This was lower than the number for every seven-day period since the week to March 18, 2020, when 169 deaths were recorded. In the following week, the number of deaths rose to 1,185.
Experts have previously said the worst of the pandemic is over and it’s time to ‘move on’ from Covid. But the World Health Organization (WHO) has yet to declare the pandemic over.
The chart above shows the number of Covid deaths reported last week and the previous record from early March 2020 when records first started
The latest death rate is also barely six percent of the peak in the highest week last year, when the number of fatalities in the US was almost 2,500 per day.
It’s also just five percent from the all-time high in January 2021, when Covid deaths rose to 23,600 a week.
Six states recorded no Covid deaths in the past week. These were Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Iowa, Mississippi, and Pennsylvania.
Commenting on the figures, Dr Paul Hunter, an infectious disease expert at the University of East Anglia in the UK, told DailyMail.com: ‘The number of deaths from Covid is falling globally and the US is not one of them. exception.’
He said this was because “almost all people have already had at least one infection and the evidence is that second or subsequent infections are less likely to lead to death, especially in people who have also been vaccinated.”
Dr. Hunter added: “SARS-CoV-2 infections will never go away, but we have known this since March 2020. Our grandchildren’s grandchildren will catch this infection.
“But we can expect serious illnesses to continue to decline until Covid is no more than another cause of the common cold.”
Dr. Maria Raven, chief executive of emergency medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, previously told WebMD ABC7To be sure, the worst worrying part of the pandemic has come to an end.
“Given both the relatively low number of cases we’re seeing and the severity of the current version of the virus, it feels like it’s time to move on.”
Earlier this month, the Biden administration was forced by Republican lawmakers to end the public health emergency over Covid a month early.
The White House had initially tried to delay this until May 11, because an early end would cause “chaos” for insurance and hospitals.
Officials say ending the PHE shows the US has entered a new and less severe phase of the pandemic.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has yet to declare an end to the pandemic, but expects to do so sometime this year.
Its director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters last month: “I am confident that this year we can say that Covid is over as a public health emergency of international concern,” he said.
“We are certainly in a much better position now than at any point in the pandemic.”
Experts are convinced that the worst of the pandemic is now over.
Despite the signals, the Biden administration announced that an additional $5 billion would be poured into Covid vaccine research this year.
A Covid booster vaccine is expected to be offered to people annually, in line with the regular flu vaccine offering.
Covid deaths peaked in the US during the first days of the pandemic and the first winter, where they hit an all-time high of 23,629 in the week ending January 13, 2021.
But amid the Covid vaccine rollout, the rise in natural immunity and new treatments, they are steadily ticking down.
Experts warn that a new variant that can evade current immunity currently poses the greatest risk.
Alarms have already been raised about the Arcturus Covid variant, which appears to be on the rise in cases in India.
But there is some evidence that while it is more transmissible, it is not more likely to cause serious illness or death compared to other strains.