According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a surge of COVID-19 in the summer has led to a very likely buildup of infections in parts of the U. S. states. A surge that comes as drugmakers await approval of new vaccines that will target the world’s population. Newer 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 another 11, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Data released Thursday shows it is not an unusual early indicator of a rise in coronavirus infections.
Covid cases have surged over the summer in recent years due to the emergence of more transmissible variants, other people gathering indoors to escape the summer heat, and travel accelerated, 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). ). Array 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 that is just as effective and millions of American children are returning to school.
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Hospitalization rates remain low. In the week ending Aug. 10, according to the latest available data, 3. 2 more people were hospitalized due to COVID, compared to 100,000 more people in a given area, more than the same week in 2023 (where another 2 people were hospitalized) but fewer than all. three past seasons (6. 3 additional 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 100,000 additional people is also well below the 2023-2024 season’s peak of 7. 8 hospitalizations per 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 booster/specific variants have since been created every year. This year’s vaccines will focus on the JN. 1 variant and the KP. 2 strain. of the JN lineage, which is the most dominant variant circulating in the United States in May, June, and July peak. The CDC recommends that anyone 6 months and older get an up-to-date COVID vaccine, regardless of their previous vaccination status. The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines will be available for children up to 6 months of age, and the Novavax vaccine will be available for children 12 years of age 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 became prevalent in the United States in the spring of 2020, and in March 2020, the Trump administration declared a national emergency. More than one million cases of COVID had been reported internationally 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 only about 20,000 confirmed deaths. Cases have been demonstrated at the national level. 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 this year, when another 302 people died, according to the CDC.
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