The US is averaging fewer than 50,000 new COVID-19 cases per day for the first time since October, down from a peak of 250,000

• The US is averaging fewer than 50,000 new cases of COVID-19 per day for the first time since October.
• New daily cases in the US peaked at just under 250,000 in January.
• The CDC said people should remain cautious until every American gets a vaccine.

The US is averaging fewer than 50,000 new coronaviruses cases per day for the first time since October, down from a peak of 250,000 in January, the latest figures from Johns Hopkins University show.

The number of Americans hospitalized or dying from COVID-19 has dropped 30 per cent in the past two weeks, per the New York Times.

Brazil is now the country with the highest number of new cases per day in the world, at around 63,000, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The downwards trend in the US could in part be due to the vaccine rollout. More than 62 million Americans have had at least one COVID-19 shot, and just under 33 million have been fully immunized, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, said during a briefing Wednesday that "all this is good news."

The US was on the "cusp of having enough vaccines to protect every adult" in the country, she said, adding: "We ask for your patience in practicing prudent prevention measures for just a while longer."

At least 11 states - including Texas, Mississippi and Michigan - have eased lockdown measures, despite Walensky's previous warnings that "now is not the time" to do so. President Joe Biden said March 3 that the decisions of the governors of Texas and Mississippi to lift mask mandates was a "big mistake" and "Neanderthal thinking."

Top public health officials in the US warned Sunday that there could be another surge in COVID-19 cases caused by more infectious coronavirus variants if states relaxed restrictions too soon.

Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota and a former adviser to Biden's coronavirus task force, told NBC Sunday that the US was "in the eye of the hurricane."

He said the coronavirus variant first identified in the UK "is about to come upon us."

"It's wreaking havoc in parts of Europe," he added.

The total number of reported COVID-19 cases in the US since the start of the pandemic currently sits at more than 29 million.