Daily COVID cases fall below 100,000 for first time in THREE months as hospitalizations and deaths decline - and 31.5 million Americans have now had a vaccine shot
The US reported fewer than 100,000 daily new coronavirus cases for the first time in over three months on Sunday as hospitalizations continue to fall and the vaccine rollout picks up speed.
Just over 96,000 new cases and 1,474 deaths were reported nationwide on Sunday, according to a tally by the COVID Tracking Project.
It marked the first time since November 2 that new infections did not exceed 100,000.
But the COVID Tracking Project noted that some states had not yet posted daily numbers for the weekend, meaning the true values for Sunday are likely higher than what's reflected in the latest report.
The latest numbers brought US totals to over 26.99 million cases and 463,339 deaths to date.
Hospitalizations have also continued to drop with 81,439 patients admitted as of Sunday - the fourth consecutive day with under 90,000 after two months above that threshold.
The US reported fewer than 100,000 daily new coronavirus cases for the first time since November 2 with just over 96,000 on Sunday, according to the COVID Tracking Project
Nationwide hospitalizations also fell below 90,000 for a fourth consecutive day on Sunday
Hospitalizations have also continued to drop with 81,439 patients admitted as of Sunday. Pictured: A hospital worker cleans an empty ICU room in Los Angeles on Friday
The Centers for Disease Control reported on Sunday that 41,210,937 coronavirus vaccine doses have been administered to date, out of 59,307,800 delivered to states.
At least one dose of a vaccine has been administered to 31,579,100 million people, which equals to 9.6 percent of the population.
Just over 9,147,000 Americans have now received both doses of a vaccine, amounting to 2.78 percent of the population.
On Sunday, the country's seven-day average for cases dropped to 117,108, down more than 8,300 from 125,431 two days earlier.
The seven-day average for deaths fell slightly to 2,920 per day.
The number of people hospitalized has dropped every day since January 14.
In the last three months of 2020, the number hospitalized had only fallen on 14 days.
In the last eight days, the number hospitalized has fallen daily by 1,797 on average, compared to 981 on average throughout January.
In December, the number hospitalized had been increasing daily at an average of 948 patients, and at an average of 1,621 patients throughout November.
This week also marked the second in a row that no states have reported a record number of weekly COVID-19 cases.
Virginia was the last to report its highest weekly cases on January 17, and New York the week before that on January 10.
Thirty-six states recorded their highest weekly cases in November and December 2020.
Only Hawaii has not seen an increase in cases since the summer and last reported its highest weekly cases on August 16. 
This week marked the second in a row that no states have reported a record number of weekly COVID-19 cases, as pictured in the graph above from the COVID Tracking Project
According to the CDC, at least 21,622,193 of the vaccine doses administered in the US so far were from Pfizer-BioNTech, while another 19,485,089 were from Moderna vaccine.
The federal data shows that the majority of states have now received between 10,000 and 20,000 doses of a vaccine per 100,000 of state population.
Nevada, Idaho, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Maryland have each administered more than 9,000 doses per 100,000 people.
A total of 4,839,144 doses of a vaccine have been administered in long-term care facilities, the agency said.
CDC data shows most states have administered doses to more than 11,000 people out of every 100,000. Nevada, Idaho, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Maryland have each administered more than 9,000 doses per 100,000 people
At least seven percent of residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine in every state.
According to the CDC data, North Dakota is miles ahead in administering its supply to residents with 92 percent of delivered shots administered as of Saturday.
West Virginia, Utah, and New Mexico have also administered more than 80 percent of the supply.
Alaska has rolled out the shots at a much slower pace with only 56 percent of delivered shots administered.
Massachusetts, California, Kana, Mississippi, Alabama, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania also have less than 60 percent of their received supply administered to residents.
On Friday, it was revealed that the coronavirus pandemic will drag on for another seven years at the current rate of vaccinations worldwide.
It will take that long to reach Dr Anthony Fauci's estimate for the herd immunity threshold of 75 percent of people inoculated globally, according to Bloomberg's vaccination calculator.
More than 4.5 million vaccines are being administered a day, for a total of 119.8 million shots given worldwide.
Despite ranking sixth in the world for the pace of its vaccinations, the US is predicted to reach herd immunity just in time for New Year's 2022.
But all of this depends on whether the vaccines are effective against variants like those that emerged in South Africa and Brazil, which appear to dull the potency of shots.
Nine vaccines are authorized worldwide, and at least two variants - those that emerged in South Africa and Brazil - might evade them.
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