New York and other states in the Northeast had the highest rates of COVID-19 test positivity in the week in the week through January 6, according to the latest data.
About 15. 8% of COVID-19 tests in the U. S. U. S. cases tested positive, compared to last week, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The CDC map shows that New Jersey, along with Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, also had a higher test positivity rate than the rest of the country, with 15. 8% positive checks in the first week of 2024.
They were followed by Vermont, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine and Connecticut, with positivity rates of 15. 5 percent.
Meanwhile, California, the country’s most populous state, is among those with the lowest test positivity rate. California, Nevada, Hawaii and Arizona had test positivity rates of 8. 3%.
Four percent of deaths were due to COVID-19 in the week leading up to Jan. 6, up 14. 3 percent from the past seven days, the CDC said.
There were 35,801 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 in the week to Jan. 6, up 3. 2% from last week. Hospitalizations from the virus are low in about one part of the country, according to the CDC.
The CDC said Friday that new COVID-19 hospitalizations increased by more than 50 percent in December, while new flu hospitalizations doubled between last November and December. “These increases are typical for this time of year, and close to the short-term forecasts recommend that the high number of hospital admissions will continue,” the company said.
More hospitals in the U. S. The U. S. Department of Health is requiring others to wear masks as health officials face a second winter season in which COVID-19, influenza, and other respiratory syncytial viruses (RSV) circulate simultaneously.
New York City instituted a mask mandate for the city’s 11 public hospitals in December, and measures have been ordered at some hospitals in other states, including California and Massachusetts.
COVID-19 is continuing to cause more hospitalizations and deaths than flu and RSV combined, the CDC said.
The JN.1 variant is now the most prominent in the world, but the CDC has said that while this variant may spread easier or be better at evading our immune systems, there is no evidence that its effects are more severe than other recent variants.
“There is no data that would indicate JN.1 infection produces different symptoms from other variants,” a spokesperson for the CDC told Newsweek earlier in January. “In general, symptoms of COVID-19 tend to be wide-ranging with all variants.”
An updated COVID vaccine formula would protect against the JN. 1 variant, the spokesperson said, and “existing vaccines, tests, and treatments still work well against JN. 1. “
Khaleda Rahman is Newsweek’s senior journalist founded in London, UK. It focuses on abortion rights, race, education, sexual abuse, and capital punishment. Khaleda joined Newsweek in 2019 and in the past worked at MailOnline in London, New York and Sydney. He is a graduate of University College London. Languages: English.
You can contact Khaleda by emailing k. rahman@newsweek. com