United States sees decline in number of new COVID-19 cases, and experts credit masks

The number of Americans newly diagnosed with the coronavirus is falling and development experts say it most likely reflects more mask-wearing but also insufficient testing — even as the disease continues to claim nearly 1000 lives in the US each day.

TVNZ News reports about 43,000 new cases are being reported daily across the US, down 21% from early August, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

The decline in newly reported cases in the US comes even as deaths from the virus remain alarmingly high. Over the past two weeks, officials have reported an average of 965 deaths a day from COVID-19, down from 1051 a day in early August.

While the US, India and Brazil still have the highest numbers of new cases in the world, the downward trend is encouraging.

The virus is blamed for more than 5.7 million confirmed infections and about 178,000 deaths in the US.

Worldwide, the death toll is put at more than 810,000, with about 23.7 million cases.

[Source:TVNZ News]