With new cases and hospitalisations decreased in two weeks in a row, the coronavirus outbreak is now easing in the US, reports AFP. 

According to experts, from strictly wearing masks to social distancing measures, there are many reasons behind this decline. They also believe end of holiday period could also be one of the reasons.

The health experts said in some parts of the country, the virus has already burned through much of the population and is running out of targets — but easing restrictions too fast could still upset the current equilibrium and trigger a new spike, scientists warn.

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The US has reported over 25 million coronavirus cases so far and over 4 lakh people have lost their lives. It is the worst-affected country by coronavirus in the world. 

In summers, the US infection rate was slow but it began to pick up again last fall during the holiday season when people started letting their guards down.

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In the second week of January, the US was reporting an average of more than 250,000 coronavirus cases everyday, according to AFP.

“That holiday travel which the virus was exploiting has kind of dissipated,” Amesh Adalja of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security told AFP.

Experts said that the spread of infectious diseases is innately linked to human behaviour. 

Natalie Dean, a biostatistics and infectious disease expert at University of Florida, told AFP she saw a “population-level feedback mechanism, such that people respond to rising numbers in their areas.”

The mass vaccination programme is also one of the reasons that the number of hospitalisations has declined.