U.S. states are starting to record days of zero deaths among people with COVID-19, another marker that the pandemic is easing.
Idaho, Minnesota, and Wisconsin saw several zero-death days in recent weeks, and the nation’s second most populous state, Texas, saw a zero-death day for the first time since March 2020.
Fifteen states on Monday reported zero COVID-19 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University, though many later added several deaths. Still, fatalities attributed to COVID-19 were just a handful in most of the states, including Alabama, Arizona, and Delaware.
Martin Kulldorff, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, told The Epoch Times: “That’s good news. Not surprising. There are two reasons for that. One is that we have a lot of immunity in the population, mostly from natural disease but also from the vaccines. We also know that it’s a seasonal disease. So the decline in March and April was mostly due to immunity but now in May seasonality has also helped,” he said.
Officials in Minnesota, which reported zero deaths on five days since March 22, said the success stemmed from vaccination and adherence to mitigation measures.
“We have seen declines in case counts the last four weeks due to increasing levels of vaccination. Deaths lag behind infections and case counts, so now, in general we are also seeing declines in deaths,” Doug Schultz, a spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Health, told The Epoch Times in an email.
“Minnesotans, in general, have also been vigilant in wearing masks and social distancing and adhering to other measures that we know can slow the spread of the virus and its variants, thus giving the vaccines a chance to work,” he added.
As cases, hospitalizations, and deaths fall across the nation, two numbers have steadily risen: those who have recovered from COVID-19 and people who have had a COVID-19 vaccine.
