There has been little or no change in the average daily growth of new coronavirus fatalities reported in the United States since early August, a Breitbart News data analysis revealed.
The seven-day moving average count of new deaths had plateaued at around 1,000 as of the end of Tuesday after a second spike that began in July and remained below peak levels, data maintained by the COVID Tracking Project revealed:
Our daily update is published. States reported 739k tests and 56k cases, as well as 1,326 deaths. This week, we hope to see data that is less marred by outages and reporting problems. pic.twitter.com/z6nswrbN64
— The COVID Tracking Project (@COVID19Tracking) August 11, 2020
On Tuesday, the average count of new daily cases recorded over the last week stood at 1,067, less than half of the peak level reported on April 21 (2,467), data from the tracking project showed.
Health analysts rely on the seven-day average number of new cases, deaths, and other metrics to account for daily fluctuations in the figures and reporting lags.
The daily toll of new deaths reached 1,326 on Tuesday, about half of the highest single-day new fatality count of 2,740 on May 7.
In late July, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield indicated that there is a “perverse” economic incentive for hospitals to inflate their COVID-19 (coronavirus disease) death tolls.
On Friday, Johns Hopkins University indicated that the second spike in the daily death rate that began in July was “approaching a peak.”
In recent weeks, the average count of new daily fatalities has remained well below record levels seen in April.
The 55,594 new infections recorded on Tuesday marked a pause in the consistent fall in the seven-day average of daily new cases that began in late July. It is too early to say whether that trend will hold.
As of Monday, cases were only increasing in six states. In the rest of the country, including the nation’s capital, the daily case growth was either mostly flat (21) or decreasing (24), a volunteer for the project added:
Here's where reported cases are growing and declining across the country pic.twitter.com/QEBsKB6c0Z
— Conor Kelly (@CohoKelly) August 11, 2020
Despite the interruption in the decline of the average new daily cases, the vast majority of states were still seeing drops in the number infections on Tuesday, compared to the situation two weeks ago, according to data from the tracking project.
There is a patchwork of guidelines for reporting deaths across the United States, with some jurisdictions and databases reporting probable fatalities while others do not, resulting in different totals.
Cumulative death totals reported by Johns Hopkins tend to be higher than those tallied by the COVID Tracking Project.
The COVID Tracking Project provides a better perspective on trends across the U.S. by reporting the seven-day averages when reporting national data, rather than daily totals like Johns Hopkins.
Nevertheless, both sources show that the new daily death and case growth is lower than peak levels.
Over the past week, the U.S. recorded 7,359 deaths, about half the fatalities during the seven days (April 12 through 18) with the highest number, Johns Hopkins reported Tuesday.
New U.S. fatalities over the past month reached 28,186, about half of the peak level in April.
Meanwhile, over the past seven days, U.S. cases stood at 380,860, down about 20 percent from peak levels during a similar period in July, Johns Hopkins reported.
New U.S. infections over the past month were down about five percent from peak levels in July.
As of Tuesday evening, COVID-19 had infected over five million U.S. residents and killed nearly 165,000, Johns Hopkins reported.
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