Deaths from COVID-19 in the United States fell for the third straight week last week, as cases and hospitalizations both showed steep drops.
The positive trends come as the U.S. death toll from the pandemic hit 500,000, though health experts have warned about a possible resurgence in cases due to new and more contagious variants of the coronavirus.
Deaths linked to COVID-19 fell 37% in the week ended Feb. 21 to 13,636, according to a Reuters analysis of U.S. state and county reports. Excluding a backlog of deaths reported by Ohio in the prior week, deaths on an adjusted basis fell 17%.
The country reported more than 491,000 new cases last week, but that was down 23% from the…
Keep on reading: US COVID-19 deaths fall for third week as cases see steep drop