COVID-19 deaths fell nationally for the second consecutive week, while hospitalizations declined for the third straight week and cases dropped for the fourth, according to the CDC's COVID data tracker weekly review published Feb. 18.
Ten things to know:
Reported cases
1. As of Feb. 16, the nation's seven-day case average was 121,665, a 43 percent decrease from the previous week's average.
Deaths
2. The current seven-day death average is 2,021, down 14.5 percent from the previous week's average. Some historical deaths have been excluded from these counts, the CDC said.
Hospitalizations
3. The seven-day hospitalization average for Feb. 9-15 was 8,642, a 28.8 percent decrease from the previous week's average.
Vaccinations
4. As of Feb. 16, about 252.4 million people — 76 percent of the total U.S. population — have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and more than 214.2 million people, or 64.5 percent of the population, have received both doses.
5. About 92.2 million additional or booster doses in fully vaccinated people have been reported. The CDC said 50 percent of people eligible for a booster dose have not yet gotten one, down from 53.2 percent a week prior.
6. The seven-day average number of vaccines administered daily was 516,988 as of Feb. 16, a 12.6 percent decrease from the previous week.
Testing
7. The seven-day average for percent positivity from tests is 8.4 percent, down 4.52 percent from the previous week.
8. The nation's seven-day average test volume for the week of Feb. 4-10 was about 1.2 million, down 14.8 percent from the prior week's average.
Variants
9. Based on projections for the week ending Feb. 12, the CDC estimates the omicron variant accounts for 100 percent of new COVID-19 cases in the U.S.
10. CDC estimates that BA.1, the original omicron strain, accounts for 73.2 percent of cases, while the BA.2 subvariant accounts for 3.9 percent of cases.