WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 46,754 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, marking the seventh consecutive day the daily count fell below 50,000 since Aug. 16.
It is the first time that daily cases have dropped under 50,000 for a whole week since summer outbreaks from July.
"I think we're seeing progress over the last four weeks, I hope that progress will continue, but I think none of us should turn away from the recognition that it's key each of us recognize we want to make sure COVID stops with us," said CDC Director Robert Redfield on Friday.
"This week, for the first time in more than two months, all our major COVID-19 metrics improved at the same time," said a new report of The COVID Tracking Project.
Tests rose as cases fell - a strong indication that COVID-19 transmission across the country may be decreasing, according to the report.
Hospitalizations fell for the third week straight, but deaths remained above 1,000 a day on average. Nationally, the number of people in the hospital with COVID-19 is down more than 27 percent from the peak on July 23, said the report.
Amid positive trend at the national level, experts remain concerned that many Midwestern states are seeing cases rise.
There are more than 10 states reporting growing cases, based on a seven-day moving average to smooth out daily reporting, according to a CNBC analysis. Many of the states are in the Midwest, including Iowa, Kansas, Illinois, North Dakota and South Dakota.
The decline of new cases came as universities and schools across the United States grapple with returning students to the classroom safely.
So far, at least three dozen states have reported coronavirus cases on college campuses, according to ABC report.
An ensemble forecast published by CDC on Friday projected up to 205,000 COVID-19 deaths in the United States by Sept. 12.
The number of COVID-19 cases in the United States topped 5.66 million as of Saturday evening with more than 176,300 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
