SANDUSKY — The COVID-19 pandemic continues to drag on with no immediate end in sight and with new cases and new deaths reported every day.

While it’s difficult to predict what might happen this winter, the situation appears to be getting better in many ways instead of worse.

As everyone waits for a safe and effective vaccine to be announced, here are some positive developments you may have missed amidst the coverage about illness, death and continuing disruption to daily life and normal business.

DEATHS HAVE DROPPED

The death toll in the U.S. appeared to be headed for catastrophe earlier in the pandemic, reaching more than 2,000 deaths a day in mid-April.

Since then, however, there has generally been a sharp decline, despite a several-week spike in deaths when U.S. cases surged. Deaths fell for many weeks from mid-April to about 550 per day in late June.

July, unfortunately, saw an upward trend driven by a big surge in U.S. cases, with deaths reaching about 1,000 per day at the beginning of August, although they never came close to the April peak.

Deaths have begun falling again in recent days. The COVID Tracking Project reported a death toll of 348 on Aug. 24, the lowest number since July 12.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which tracks the seven-day moving average for deaths, said the average was 1,145 on Aug. 1 and was 940 on Aug. 26. The average for deaths hit a peak of 2,856 on April 21, the CDC said.

The CDC said daily cases also are falling, from a seven-day average of 66,920 on July 22 to 41,731 on Aug. 26.

Various trends have helped reduce daily deaths. Doctors have learned more about how to treat COVID-19 cases and authorities have learned that keeping the coronavirus out of nursing homes as much as possible is a key to preventing deaths. Older adults who are most vulnerable to the disease have generally heeded advice to avoid crowds and take precautions.

HERD IMMUNITY

Evidence appears to be mounting in recent weeks that areas hit hard initially by the coronavirus appear to be acquiring a form of herd immunity, a condition in which enough people have had the disease, making it harder to spread.

Writing recently for Bloomberg News, economics professor Tyler Cowen commented, “Some researchers are suggesting that regions acquire at least partial herd immunity at 20 percent exposure, whereas earlier estimates had suggested up to 70 percent exposure would be needed. If true, this could be very good news for the hardest-hit areas.”

Cowen noted that cases and deaths had plunged in Sweden even though Swedes didn’t wear masks or follow strict social distancing. Herd immunity is not a cure-all and risks remain, he added.

While it remains unclear exactly when a safe, effective vaccine will become widely available in the U.S., and it’s dangerous to make predictions about the course of the disease, herd immunity may cause the disease to diminish in the U.S. It should be noted, however, that some experts worry about what will happen when cold weather forces Americans indoors during the winter.

TEST AVAILABILITY

New testing methods have been approved and are coming into operation. Most COVID-19 experts agree that widespread testing is key to dealing with the disease.

On Aug. 15, the Food and Drug Administration approved the SalivaDirect COVID-19 diagnostic test developed by the Yale School of Public Health.

Ohio recently announced it has entered a multi-state agreement with Maryland, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Virginia to expand the use of rapid point-of-care tests. Gov. Mike DeWine has emphasized he will keep pushing for expanded testing.

But perhaps the best news is the FDA’s recent announcement it has approved an inexpensive new Abbott Diagnostics Scarborough, Inc. test that can deliver results in 15 minutes.

Discussing the announcement at the Marginal Revolution blog, economist Alex Tabarrok explained that Abbott is expected to begin producing 50 million tests a month within a few weeks and the Trump administration has promised to buy 150 million of them.

“The U.S. has performed about 80 million tests since the pandemic began, so an additional 50 million tests a month is a big increase in capacity,” Tabarrok wrote.

SEWAGE

Testing wastewater in Ohio for the presence of COVID-19 may help public authorities obtain early warnings on the presence of COVID-19 in a community.

The Ohio Department of Health and the Ohio EPA announced in July that water samples will be taken from wastewater treatment systems in Ohio cities to detect the presence of coronavirus ribonucleic acid fragments.

While the initial testing began in big cities such as Cleveland and Columbus, state officials said they were reaching out to smaller cities.

Sewer system testing allows COVID-19 testing to be carried out on huge numbers of people, explained a June 30 article from Scientific American, “To Spot Future Coronavirus Flare-Ups, Search the Sewers.”

“Conducting existing diagnostic tests on an entire population is impractical, and such tests are not equitably distributed. Everyone uses the bathroom, however,” the article said. “Thus, wastewater sampling allows for testing for the novel coronavirus’s presence in millions of people all at once, regardless of their socioeconomic status or access to health care.”