COVID-19 updates: US cases at lowest point since Christmas

President Joe Biden's administration has so far contracted for about 569 million at-home rapid tests as it works to fulfill Biden's pledge for 1 billion free tests nationwide, a White House official told ABC News. 

According to an ABC News analysis, the testing company iHealth is supplying the government with the most tests toward this goal, with a contract to deliver 354 million tests. Other companies supplying tests include Roche, Abbott and Siemens. 

The U.S. Postal Service said Friday ​it's shipped out tests to "tens of millions" of those households.

-ABC News' Cheyenne Haslett, Ben Gittleson, Lucien Bruggeman

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced Monday that the state’s requirement to wear face masks in schools will end on March 7.

"Balancing public health with getting back to some semblance of normalcy is not easy. But we can responsibly take this step due to declining COVID numbers and growth in vaccinations," Murphy tweeted.

Murphy, a Democrat, has imposed some of the strictest pandemic-related mandates in the country. New Jersey, an early hot spot for COVID-19 cases, has lost more than 31,000 residents to the virus.

This move follows a decision last month by Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, also a Democrat, to rescind his state's mask mandate for schools.

Meanwhile, the Democratic governors of New York and Connecticut have said that they are reevaluating school mask mandates set to expire later this month.

-ABC News' Aaron Katersky

After months of rising cases due to the omicron surge, every state in the U.S. is now reporting declining or stable new case rates, according to federal data.

Less than one month ago, the U.S. was averaging more than 800,000 new cases per day. Now that average has plummeted to just over 313,000 new cases per day -- a 61% drop since the nation's peak in mid-January and a 56% drop in the last two weeks. 

Even so, the U.S. still reported nearly 2.2 million new COVID-19 cases last week; the nation's daily case average remains higher than during any other wave of the pandemic.

Hospitalizations are also falling. About 14,000 Americans are being admitted to the hospital with COVID-19 each day -- down by more than 23% in the last week, according to federal data.

Deaths, however, remain very high, with 16,800 Americans dying from COVID-19 over the last week. Deaths are a lagging indicator and usually take a few weeks to dip after the country sees a decline in cases and hospitalizations. 

-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos

Delaware will lift its universal mask mandate on Friday morning after an improvement in cases and hospitalizations, Gov. John Carney said.

"We’re in a much better place than we were several weeks ago," Carney said in a statement Monday. “I want to be clear about this point - COVID is still circulating in our communities. And the virus still poses a risk of serious illness, particularly among those who are not up to date on their vaccinations. But we have the tools to keep ourselves and each other safe."

The mask requirement for Delaware schools was extended and is now set to expire on March 31.