US faces long road on COVID-19 amid signs of improvement | TheHill

Coronavirus cases nationally are falling from their July peaks and some hard-hit states are showing signs of improvement, a hopeful sign even as the country deals with about 1,000 COVID-19 deaths every day.The positive news is still dwarfed by the negative reality of the pandemic’s hold over the country.Though the situation is not as bad as it was in July, when cases peaked around 70,000 per day, the United States still has a very high level of virus circulating, with around 40,000 new cases per day, according to the Covid Tracking Project. Marta Wosińska, a health expert at Duke University who works on the Covid Exit Strategy, a project tracking the spread of the virus in the U.S., said many states are “doing better than they were, but they're still in this dark red zone.”“Obviously you could do much better,” she added. Arizona, once one of the hardest-hit states, has seen a dramatic improvement, after Gov. Doug DuceyDoug DuceyMcSally tells supporters to 'fast a meal' and donate to her campaign State, local Republicans advocate for mail-in voting even as Trump rails against it Overnight Health Care: Fauci says he does not see US mandating COVID-19 vaccine | WHO warns against 'nationalism' in coronavirus fight MORE (R), who initially resisted stronger measures, closed bars and allowed localities to require masks.