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Feb. 20 (UPI) -- COVID-19 is continuing to subside in the United States as lawmakers and health officials begin to turn an eye toward the future. For the second consecutive week, COVID-19 cases were on the decline in every U.S. state and territory with all but four states reporting declines of 50% or greater in the past two weeks, according to data gathered by The New York Times.
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Cases dropped 40.6% to a seven-day daily average of 103,462 in a posting Saturday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Deaths were also on the decline, falling 15% in the past week for a seven-day daily average of 1,920.
Overall, the United States has reported a total of 78,468,292 cases and 935,174 deaths since the start of the pandemic, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
COVID-19 hospitalizations also continued to decline, with 62,938 inpatient beds in use for COVID-19 patients at more than 6,000 reporting hospitals, representing 8.26% of all hospital beds, down about 3% from last week and a record of 160,113 Jan. 20, according to Department of Health and Human Services data.
West Virginia, Kentucky, Alabama and Arkansas have the highest rates of hospitalizations per 100,000 residents in the country, the Times reported. All four states have vaccination rates below 60%.
As of Saturday, 252,791,817 people, or 76.1%, of the total U.S. population have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 214,745,073 people, or 64.7% of the population, have completed their vaccine regimen, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among those who are fully vaccinated, 43.2% have received an additional booster dose.
With COVID-19 cases continuing to decrease, states and localities have continued to ease up on restrictions such as mask mandates and vaccine requirements.
California, which has seen cases decline by 74% over the past two weeks, on Thursday unveiled the SMARTER plan, which will see the state maintain capacity to administer at least 200,000 COVID-19 vaccines per day, keep a stockpile of 75 million "high-quality masks," track variants and communicate with the public, work to keep schools open and order clinically effective COVID-19 therapies, after it lifted its indoor mask mandate earlier in the week.
Other states that have announced plans to withdraw masking mandates for indoor settings and schools include Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon and Rhode Island.
New York reported only 3,050 cases Saturday compared with a record 90,132 Jan. 9.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu on Friday announced that the city would lift its proof of vaccine policy that mandated patrons and staff at indoor locations provide proof of vaccination, stating it was "below the three critical thresholds for heightened COVID protections."
Massachusetts hasa 95% one shot vaccination rate of those 18 and older.
