As the US approaches 400,000 deaths from the coronavirus pandemic, new cases have been trending down but multiple states are reporting cases of new variants of the virus.

The US recorded 1.5 million new Covid-19 cases in the past seven days, according to the most recent data from Johns Hopkins University, an 11% drop from the previous week. Cases declined in 35 states week-over-week, and 18 states saw a drop in the number of deaths. But with a longer-range view, last week's apparent improvement falls much closer to average. Over the past month, the number of new Covid-19 cases recorded each day has ranged from nearly 101,000 to more than 302,000; over the past seven days, new cases averaged about 218,000 daily.

"The virus has established itself in the human population and it's not going anywhere," Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert with Johns Hopkins University, told CNN. "We're going to see a lot of transmission until we cross the threshold for herd immunity."

At least 398,879 people have died in the U.S. from Covid-19 in the United States, and the country passed the 24 million mark in total cases on Monday, according to Johns Hopkins University data. More than half -- 60% -- of all Covid-19 cases in the United States have been reported since Election Day, according to a CNN analysis of Johns Hopkins University data.
California, the current epicentre of the pandemic in the US, became the first state on Monday to record more than 3 million Covid-19 cases, according to data from Johns Hopkins and the Covid Tracking Project. The number of Covid-19 cases in California has tripled in just the past two months.

The country's total Covid-19 death toll is more than the number of Americans who died in World War I, the Vietnam War and the Korean War combined and nearly as many Americans who died in World War II.

And it's far higher than any other country's Covid-19 death toll.

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/18/health/us-coronavirus-monday/index.html