Plus, background on NATO 

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** The Omicron surge is ending. Now what?
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US coronavirus cases are at some of their lowest levels since July 2021, though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has not said that the pandemic is over. As the weather gets warmer and the last states lift restrictions, the CDC has introduced a new way to measure virus severity by county. This measurement, called “COVID-19 community levels,” evaluates counties with low, medium, and high risk levels. USAFacts has five new charts ([link removed]) to add context to this new metric.
* This community-level metric considers three statistics:
+ New COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people in the past week.
+ The seven-day average percentage of staffed inpatient hospital beds occupied by COVID-19 patients.
+ Total new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people in the past week.

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* As of March 24, 95% of Americans lived in low-risk counties. Less than one percent lived in high-risk counties.

* In January 2022, adult hospitalizations with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases hit 13.9 daily per 100,000 people, the highest rate since a year prior. Rates have since fallen to less than three hospitalizations a day per 100,000.

* Daily case counts are nearly 96% below the all-time high in January 2022. The latest average daily count was 27,000 cases — almost a fourth of the 104,400 daily cases since March 2020.

* Hawaii was the last state to end indoor mask mandates, lifting them in late March.

You’ll find even more in this new article ([link removed]) , including an interactive map tracking COVID-19 cases back to April 2020, plus how wastewater data is a precursor for virus case data.

US energy prices and the Russia-Ukraine war

President Joe Biden announced on March 31 that the nation will release 1 million barrels of oil from its strategic reserves every day for six months to bring down gas prices. This comes after the US banned imports of Russian oil, liquified natural gas, and coal on March 8. What could this mean for US oil and energy prices? ([link removed])
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* Gas prices are 41% higher than in March of last year and 49% higher than in March 2019. The global fallout from the invasion of Ukraine isn’t the only cost factor; supply chain issues and inflation pressure also cause prices to rise.

* Russia provides about 16% of the uranium American nuclear plants need to function. (Trade agreements limit Russian imports of uranium to 20% in the US). Some members of Congress have called for the US to add uranium to the list of banned Russian energy products.

* Demand for oil and gas dropped in the first year of the pandemic, with average weekly spot prices for one crude oil barrel hitting $4.30 on April 24, 2020. Crude oil costs have mostly risen since November 2020. As of March 15, the average barrel price was $96.44, about 36% higher than before the Russian invasion.

See more about US energy and the Russia-Ukraine war ([link removed]) .

What is NATO?

On March 26, President Biden visited Warsaw, Poland to deliver a speech about the fighting in Ukraine. The address had symbolic value, too, given that Poland shares borders with both Ukraine and Russia and is a member of the NATO alliance. Furthermore, Russia is demanding a guarantee that Ukraine never join NATO. What is NATO ([link removed]) ? Get a primer at USAFacts.org.

One last fact
Last year, 73 law enforcement officers were feloniously killed in the line of duty. It was a decade high, one more than the 72 officers feloniously killed in 2011.

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