Coronavirus tally: CDC drops country-by-country COVID travel health notices as fewer countries are testing and tracking

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has dropped its country-by-country COVID-19 travel health notices that it began issuing early in the pandemic, the Associated Press reported. The reason: Fewer countries are testing for the virus or reporting the number of COVID-19 cases. That limits the CDC’s ability to calculate travelers’ risk, according to the agency. In the U.S., known cases of COVID are continuing to ease and now stand at their lowest level since late April, although the true tally is likely higher given how many people are testing at home, where the data are not being collected. The daily average for new cases stood at 45,495 on Monday, according to a New York Times tracker, down 24% from two weeks ago. The daily average for hospitalizations was down 11% at 27,854, while the daily average for deaths is down 12% to 386. Globally, the confirmed case tally rose above 618.5 million on Tuesday, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins, while the death toll is above 6.54 million with the U.S. leading the world with 96.4 million cases and 1,059,866 deaths.