A key metric for tracking the spread of COVID-19 has officially reached “high” degrees in the western U. S. states. According to information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But the firm says it’s still too early to tell if this year’s summer COVID-19 wave has spread nationally.
Levels of SARS-CoV-2 virus showing up in wastewater samples are surging in most parts of the country, according to firm figures from June 27.
The government’s health is relying on sewer sample research to get a sense of COVID-19 trends now that cases are largely no longer tested or reported. The CDC also relies on knowledge from emergency rooms and hospitals to track the virus. .
Nationally, virus levels in wastewater remain “low,” according to the CDC. But across the West, initial figures from the past few weeks show that this key trend in COVID-19 has passed the threshold that the company considers “high. “degrees of the virus.
“Summer is back and we’re about to have the summer surge, as we call it, in COVID cases. You know, we have an increase in the summer, and then it decreases in the fall and increases more substantially in the fall,” Dr. William Schaffner, a professor at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, told CBS News.
However, the CDC didn’t go so far as to say that this year’s summer surge had begun.
“During April and May 2024, COVID-19 activity was lower than at any time since the start of the pandemic. Recent increases need to be considered from that baseline,” the CDC said in a statement Friday.
Increases in COVID-19 degrees have been seen in previous years during the summer after trends dropped in the spring, but not at this specific time of the season. Last year’s summer surge didn’t peak until late August or early September.
“While there are signs of the possible onset of a summer surge, national COVID-19 activity remains weak. CDC will continue to monitor to see if those recent surges persist,” the firm said.
Some of the worst COVID-19 trends among Western states have occurred in Hawaii, where wastewater levels are now higher than last winter’s peak.
COVID-19 emergency room visits in Hawaii have also reached some of the worst degrees in more than a year, according to the CDC’s knowledge of recent weeks, beyond the peaks of last summer and winter.
These trends may now show signs of slowing down.
CDC forecasters announced last week that COVID-19 cases were now “likely declining” in one US state, Hawaii, after weeks of increases. Emergency room visits in regions stretching from Hawaii to Arizona now also appear to be stagnating, failing to reach the peaks of last year’s summer and winter surges.
The increases came as officials and experts have been tracking the emergence of a new variant on the other side of the country: the LB. 1 variant, a descendant of the JN. 1 variant from last winter’s wave.
As of early June, the CDC estimates that LB. 1 had reached 30. 9% of cases in the domain covering New York and New Jersey. Fewer than 1 in 10 cases in Western states came from LB. 1 in the same period.
COVID-19 trends are highest in emergency room awareness in New York City and the New Jersey area, but they are still far from the levels seen at last winter’s or summer’s peaks.
In wastewater, virus trends in the Northeast are among the lowest of all regions and remain at still “minimal” degrees according to the agency.