Washington, Feb 8 (IANS): In the past one week, the US witnessed a significant drop in the number of new confirmed coronavirus cases, deaths, as well as hospitalisations, according to The Covid Tracking Project.

In its latest update, the Tracking Project said on Sunday that fresh cases were down more than 16 per cent in the above mentioned period, and dropped below one million for the first time since the week of November 5, 2020, reports Xinhua news agency.

"This is still an astonishing number of new cases per week, but far better than the nearly 1.8 million cases reported on the week of January 14," it said.

While the national level continues to drop, 10 states witnessed declines of more than 25 per cent in new cases in the past week, according to the Tracking Project.

In another 32 states, new cases declined by at least 10 per cent, and only a single state, Texas, posted a double-digit increase in the same period.

Hospitalisations have also fallen rapidly for the past two weeks.

The country had 84,223 people hospitalised with Covid-19 as of February 6, down about more than 40,000 from the country's peak in early January, but still three times as many as before the fall and winter case surge, according to the Tracking Project.

Deaths due to the disease also declined in the past week, the first weekly drop since October 2020.

Despite the decline however, deaths remained incredibly high -- more than 21,000 were reported over the past week.

According to data published by the Johns Hopkins University (JHU), more than 100,000 people in the US have died of Covid-19 since January 1.

Currently, the seven-day averages for reported cases and deaths are about 120,000 and 3,200 per day, respectively, according to data of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The US still accounts for the highest number of cases and deaths in the world, making it the hardest-hit country globally.

In its latest update on Monday morning, the JHU revealed that the country's overall caseload and death toll stood at 27,004,529 and 463,433, respectively.