According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a summer surge of COVID-19 has led to a highly likely cluster of infections in parts of the U. S. states, a surge that comes as drug manufacturers Medicines await the approval of new vaccines that will target the world’s population. newest variant of the coronavirus – even if hospitalizations remain low.
COVID-19 infections are surging in 14 states and likely another 11, according to CDC data Tuesday, the latest data available, with only five states expected to see a recent decline in cases (numbers are strong or doubtful in the other 20). states).
The levels of SARS-COV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19 – in wastewater are “very high” in 33 states, including Texas, Florida and California, six more than those reported last week, and “high ” in 11 others, according to the CDC. Data released Thursday shows this is a not unusual early indicator of a coronavirus infection.
Covid cases have increased during the summer in recent years as more transmissible variants emerge, other people gather indoors to escape the summer heat, and travel accelerates, according to Johns HopkinsArray.
This year’s summer surge could end up being the largest seen in the season since the virus began circulating in 2020, public fitness expert Ashish Jha told NBC News, but hospitalization and death rates remain relatively low compared to later summers (in May). ). , hospitals are no longer required to report COVID data to the CDC).
This buildup has been attributed in part to three new variants that have evolved enough from their original virus, JN. 1, that immunity against infections beyond is just as effective and millions of American children are returning to school. school.
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Hospitalization rates remain low. In the week ending August 10, the most recent data available, 3. 2 more people were hospitalized with COVID, compared to 100,000 more people in a given area, more than the same week in 2023 (when another 2 people were hospitalized) but less than all. Three previous seasons (6. 3 people were hospitalized in the same week in 2020, 5. 8 in 2021 and 7. 7 in 2022). The rate of 3. 2 hospitalizations per additional 100,000 people is also well below the 2023-2024 season peak of 7. 8. hospitalizations compared to 100,000 additional people at the end of December.
“Our hospitalization rates are going down, so even though we’re testing and seeing more [COVID], it turns out that it has less of an effect on our vulnerable populations,” Michael Phillips, lead epidemiologist at NYU Langone Health Hospital in New York. . he told NBC.
The CDC says COVID inflections are most likely expanding or expanding in California, Washington, Idaho, Arizona, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Illinois, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Arkansas, Mississippi, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Vermont, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. Cases are most likely declining in Alaska, Hawaii, Louisiana, Florida and New York. Other states remained strong with their COVID infection rates or were estimated through the CDC.
Updated vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax to protect against the new variants are expected to be approved next week, according to the Washington Post, and the vaccines may be available to the public as soon as Labor Day. COVID cases typically accumulate in the fall and winter months.
The first COVID-19 vaccines became available in December 2020 for adults and since then rapid booster shots/variants have been created to receive each year. This year’s vaccines will focus on the JN. 1 variant and the KP. 2 strain of the JN lineage, which was the most dominant variant circulating in the United States in May, June and July. The CDC recommends that everyone over 6 months old get an existing COVID vaccine, regardless of previous vaccination status. The Moderna and Pfizer vaccine will be available for children up to 6 months old, and the Novavax vaccine will be available for children 12 years and older.
Drugmakers are also working to create a mixed vaccine that can vaccinate against COVID and flu simultaneously. Moderna’s mixed vaccine has shown promising results in clinical trials, the Washington Post reported, and may be available next year.
COVID-19 first became prevalent in the United States in spring 2020, and in March 2020, the Trump administration declared a national emergency. More than 1 million cases of COVID had been confirmed worldwide as of April 4 of that year, and as of April 5, there were more than 500,000 confirmed cases in the United States and nearly 20,000 deaths. COVID became the third leading cause of death in the United States in August 2020, and as of June 2022, more than 84 million COVID cases have been reported nationally. Covid deaths in the United States declined especially in the spring of 2022 and have remained low since then, hitting a five-year low the week of June 8 of this year, when another 302 people died, according to the CDC.
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