Latest Covid Surge Appears to Flame Out Even in Worst Hot Spots

(Bloomberg) -- Even in the most devastated U.S. counties, the latest Covid-19 surge is receding, buying authorities time as they attempt to vaccinate about 330 million people.

Recent hot spots including Webb County, Texas; Maricopa County, Arizona; and Greenville and Spartanburg counties in South Carolina have seen cases trend downward in the past week, according to USAFacts, a nonprofit statistics aggregator used by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Among the top-five hot spots with populations of at least 250,000, only Pinal County, Arizona, saw cases increase.

The data is another sign of relief for the U.S. health-care system. The U.S. has been administering an average of 1.26 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine per day in the past week, but just about 1.4% of the population has received the required two doses, according to the Bloomberg Virus Tracker. At the same time, the progress could be threatened by new Covid variants and the community’s inclination to prematurely ease up on safety practices.

The U.S. posted 165,985 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, dropping the seven-day average to 162,157, the lowest since Dec. 1, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

Deaths, a lagging indicator, remain high: The U.S. added 3,895 to the toll on Thursday, and the total is nearly 434,000, including Friday’s partial count from Johns Hopkins.

According to Covid Tracking Project data:

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