After a year that has darkened doorways across the U.S., the pandemic surpassed a milestone Monday that once seemed unimaginable.

Deaths from COVID-19 across the country are down to about 680 a day, compared with around 960 two weeks ago, according to an Associated Press analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

The new model is almost double previous projections, as social-distancing measures for quelling the pandemic are increasingly relaxed in several states.