Nationwide, the U.S. is now averaging roughly 140,000 new COVID cases per day -- a 64% drop over the past two weeks. The pace of new infections is declining in every state.

But there's a difference between a declining number of cases and a small number of cases.

Some regions of the U.S. have achieved both: COVID cases have fallen all the way down to levels that experts consider at least relatively safe.

New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are all averaging fewer than 25 new cases per 100,000 people per day. So is Washington, D.C., and Maryland is doing even better, at just 12 cases per day for every 100,000 residents.