COVID deaths at lowest point since last summer

The lowest daily average total of deaths from COVID-19 has been recorded since before the omicron variant swept the U.S. in the fall of 2021.

Fewer than 800 deaths per day due to the coronavirus are being reported on average, which is the lowest number since the middle of last August, The New York Times reports.

Typically, the number of deaths trails the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations by a few weeks, the Times noted.

The number of daily infections has reportedly stagnated in recent days, hitting 30,000, the lowest since last July.

Hospitalizations from COVID-19 have also recently taken a sharp decline, falling to 18,000 a day, the Times reports, while intensive care unit cases from the coronavirus have fallen below 3,000.

In Europe, however, COVID-19 cases are rising, causing scientists in the United States to sound alarm, and U.S. health officials to warn of case counts likely rising domestically. 

The new BA.2 omicron subvariant, which is to blame for rising cases in Europe, currently accounts for 35 percent of infections in the United States, according to the Times.

The newspaper notes that COVID-19 cases have started to rise once again in Kentucky, New York, Colorado and Texas during the past two weeks.

According to the World Health Organization, the BA.2 subvariant has become the dominant strain of COVID-19 across the world.