The number of COVID-19 vaccine doses delivered across the United States over the past week dropped 22.5%, but the amount of doses administered increased 13.5%, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The country has also seen a three-week downward trend in new COVID-19 cases, resulting in a 44% decline in the seven-day daily average since the peak on Jan. 8, the report said.

Still, the current number of daily cases remains over twice as high as the numbers during prior peaks.

ABC News’ Brian Hartman and Josh Margolin contributed to this report.

There are currently 91,000 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in the United States -- the lowest since Nov. 28, which was two days after Thanksgiving, according to an ABC News analysis of data compiled by The COVID Tracking Project, a volunteer-run effort to track the U.S. outbreak.

COVID-19 hospitalizations have declined across the country by nearly 30% over the last three weeks.

In the span of three weeks, the national seven-day average of daily COVID-19 cases has declined by 45.6% -- the steepest and most consistent non-holiday-related drop in cases the U.S. has seen since the summer.

ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos contributed to this report.

The director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday that the COVID-19 fatality rate on the 54-nation continent "is becoming very troubling," as it climbs higher than the global average.

John Nkengasong told reporters during a press conference that the death rate from COVID-19 in Africa, the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, is now 2.6% while the global rate is 2.2%.

Nkengasong said 20 African nations, including South Africa and Sudan, have COVID-19 fatality rates higher than the global average as the continent grapples with new, more contagious variants of the virus. More than 3.5 million people across Africa have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic and nearly 89,000 of them have died, according to the latest data from the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The African Union regional bloc has secured 670 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from various manufacturers. In addition, Africa is expecting around 600 million doses from the vaccine-sharing facility COVAX, which aims to start shipping nearly 90 million doses to the continent in February.

Enough COVID-19 vaccine doses have been secured to inoculate all U.S. Capitol Police personnel, according to Acting Chief Yogananda Pittman, who credited "efforts of the Congressional Leadership, especially House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Administration."

The federal police force has been hit hard by COVID-19 infections since the Jan. 6 siege at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C..

"The Department expects delivery of the vaccines to occur shortly, and is already working with the Office of Attending Physician on logistics to administer them to our employees as quickly and safely as possible," Pittman said in a statement Thursday.

ABC News’ Jack Date contributed to this report.

An accommodation facility for refugees in the German city of Cologne has been hit by new, more contagious variants of the novel coronavirus, city officials said.

At least 41 residents of the Herkulesstrasse facility have tested positive for COVID-19. Variants first identified in South Africa or Brazil have been detected in 31 of them so far, according to a statement from the city government on Sunday.

At least 16 staff members at the facility have also tested positive for COVID-19, with the South Africa variant detected in 11 of them so far. Variant analysis is still pending on the other five, according to the statement.

All residents of the facility have been under quarantine since Friday, while the site has been under surveillance since Sunday. Entry into the refugee accommodation center, which can house up to 600 people, is currently banned, according to the statement.

The first known COVID-19 cases were confirmed among two employees at the facility about 10 days ago, while the first case of a variant was confirmed last week, according to the statement.

Dr. Harald Rau, head of Cologne's public health department, said the detection of variants at the refugee accommodation center "is a clear alarm signal for all of us."

"I ask all people in Cologne to avoid contact even more consistently than before and to follow the distance and hygiene rules of infection protection," Rau said in a statement Sunday.