'The worst is behind us': COVID virus ebbs, lending hope to a nation lashed by disease

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As experts predicted, the pandemic is operating on less of a light switch than a dimmer - dialing back สล็อตxo and forth in different pockets of the country. For once though, it seems, the nation's pandemic dimmer is turning in the right direction.

"I think we can confidently say the worst is behind us barring some crazy unforeseen variant that none of us are expecting to see," said Dr. Ashish K. Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health.

"We will not see the kind of suffering and death we have seen over the holidays. I think we are in much better shape heading forward," Jha told ABC's "Good Morning America" ​​Friday.

More than half the country - 26 states - has reported declining case numbers in the last week with new cases down 18 percent. Deaths and hospitalizations are down too. Even Michigan, the U.S. hotspot this spring, has seen its daily case average drop by more than 36 percent, according to data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"We think this is related to increased vaccination, increased people taking caution, and so I'm cautiously optimistic that we're turning the corner," CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told GMA this week.

The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, which conducts its own weekly forecast, called it "clear evidence that transmission is falling" and predicted the trend would continue.

"Much of the improvements can be tied to increasing vaccination rates among younger and middle-age adults," the hospital's PolicyLab concluded this week.