COVID updates: Hawaii is only state to not announce plans to lift mask mandates

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said his 4-year-old daughter tested positive for COVID-19 this weekend.

At age 4, she’s too young to qualify for the vaccine.

He said she's had a fever and sore throat but is breathing fine.

Murthy tweeted, "Trying to isolate a small child from her 5 y/o brother and parents in a small home is pretty tough. Which is why I’m grateful that my son, my wife, and I are all vaccinated. Even if we contract the virus, it’s unlikely to cause severe illness."

"Few things are worse than worrying about your child’s health. The more we all get vaccinated and take precautions, the more we can protect all our kids," he continued. "I wish a vaccine was available for my child and for all kids. It would protect kids and help parents. Unfortunately more data is still needed from clinical trials for the FDA to make a full assessment."

"Staring at my daughter’s positive test, I asked myself the same questions many parents have asked: Will my child be ok? Could I have done more to protect her? Was this my fault? In these moments, it doesn’t matter if you’re a doctor or Surgeon General," he wrote. "Parenting during the pandemic has been one of the hardest jobs I could have imagined. I have immense respect for the millions of parents who are grappling with the daily, exhausting decision-making that goes into protecting our kids’ health and their education."

After the U.S. reported an unprecedented number of pediatric COVID-19 cases in January, for the third week in a row, new COVID-19 cases among children have dropped. 

Last week less than 300,000 children tested positive for COVID-19, down from the peak level of 1,150,000 pediatric cases during the week ending Jan. 20, according to new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.

However, the organizations continue to warn that pediatric infections are "extremely high," with numbers still above the peak level of the delta surge in summer 2021.

Child COVID-19 cases "spiked dramatically" during the omicron surge, with more than 4.5 million children testing positive in 2022.

It has been more than three months since every American child over the age of 5 became eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine. However, 51.1% of eligible children remain unvaccinated.

-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos

Starting March 1, masks will no longer be required in Washington, D.C.'s restaurants, bars, gyms, grocery stores and pharmacies, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced.

As of Tuesday, indoor venues in D.C. will no longer be required to verify that patrons are vaccinated, however businesses may choose to keep vaccine requirements in place, the mayor said.

"Since the height of [the] omicron wave entered the district in December, cases have dropped more than 90% and there has been a 95% reduction in hospitalizations," Bowser said.

Masks will still be required in places like schools, child care facilities, nursing homes, medical facilities and public transit.

-ABC News' Beatrice Peterson

The U.S. is now averaging 175,000 new COVID-19 cases per day, a drop of 78% since the omicron peak about one month ago, according to federal data.

The U.S reported about 1.2 million new cases over the last week. At one point there were more than 5.5 million cases per week in January. 

Nearly 99% of U.S. counties are reporting high transmission. Also, many Americans are taking at-home tests and not submitting their results, so case totals may be higher than reported.

COVID-19-related deaths remain very high with an average of more than 2,200 fatalities each day, according to federal data.

Thirteen states plus Washington, D.C., are reporting increasing daily death rates: Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Utah, Washington and West Virginia.

-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos