Matthew Rocco in New York
New coronavirus infections in the US were on track to fall by one-quarter in August, after rising on Monday by their smallest amount in more than two months.
There were 31,406 new confirmed cases, which brought the nation’s total since the pandemic began to just under 6m, according to the Covid Tracking Project. A real-time count by Johns Hopkins University pegged the US total at more than 6m earlier on Monday.
The one-day tally was the lowest since June 22, helped by a deceleration in new cases across the US south and west, according to Financial Times analysis of Covid Tracking Project data. The US has added an average of 40,809 new cases in each of the last seven days, the lowest number since the end of June.
The number of deaths attributed to coronavirus increased by 358, keeping the one-week rolling average below 1,000 for a 10th day running. Figures can be lower on Mondays due to reporting delays over the weekend.
A memorial service is held in Los Angeles on Monday to honour more than 5,700 residents who lost their lives to coronavirus © AFP
The report follows data from Texas, Florida and California showing the smallest one-day rise in confirmed cases there since mid-June, a continuation of recent trends indicating that outbreaks in the US sunbelt have abated.
Hospital admissions are also on the decline, with the number of US patients undergoing treatment for Covid-19 reaching levels last seen two months ago.
States have reported a combined 1.39m cases so far this month, 27 per cent below the number of cases reported in July with the final batch of August figures set to arrive on Tuesday. The US had 1.9m cases in July and 8.7m cases in June.
However, the number of fatalities has risen for a second straight month. The number of deaths recorded in August surpassed 29,000 on Monday, compared with 25,772 in July.