The U.S. suicide rate has fallen after years of hovering at some of the highest levels ever reported, according to preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The number of U.S. suicides fell nearly 6% last year amid the coronavirus pandemic — the largest annual decline in at least four decades.

NEW YORK – The U.S. suicide rate fell slightly last year, the first annual decline in more than a decade, according to new government data. In 2018, the national suicide rate hit its highest level since 1941 — 14.2 per 100,000 people. But death rates for the nation's two biggest killers — heart disease and cancer — were down, as were death rates for flu, chronic lung disease and Alzheimer's disease. "There are clear forces pressing suicide risk factors in a negative direction,” Moutier said, but that's doesn't mean suicide rates will automatically rise. “It’s possible that the rise in COVID-19 is sort pushing down the suicide rate,” he suggested.

Beth Dubber/Netflix via CNN(CNN) - More than two years after its debut, a graphic suicide scene has been cut from the first season of "13 Reasons Why," Netflix announced Monday. The series is based on best-selling author Jay Asher's 2007 young adult book of the same title. A Netflix official told CNN Monday that Hannah's suicide no longer appears on the streaming site. The rate of suicide among US boys ages 10 to 17 surged in the month after "13 Reasons Why" premiered in March 2017, according to an April study by the Nationwide Children's Hospital. He also said the show's intent in showing the suicide scene "was to tell the truth about the horror of such an act, and make sure no one would ever wish to emulate it."