May 1, 2023 – The CDC will stop tracking and reporting community-level COVID cases later this month.
That means COVID tracking will turn into just like how we monitor the flu and other respiratory illnesses. There can be an extended delay in knowing how widespread COVID is within the U.S. since the agency will rely totally on data on hospitalizations, which usually doesn't come until long after an individual is infected.
The CDC's plans, reported by CNN And NBC Newscan be implemented after the top of the COVID federal health emergency on May 11.
“With the end of the public health emergency, CDC will no longer receive the same data. We are working to update the measure of communal COVID-19 risk based on available data,” a CDC spokesperson wrote in an email, in line with NBC News. “Our priority remains providing the information needed to protect the nation's public health.”
Community-level reporting allowed people to enter a location right into a web-based CDC. Search function after which receive a color-coded indication of how widespread the virus was within the region. The codes also included safety recommendations based on the variety of cases and other aspects.
The agency also announced that it might postpone the publication of its Weekly review of the COVID data tracker on May 12. In the most recent release of the weekly report, the agency said 17 U.S. communities were severely impacted by COVID and 79 communities were moderately impacted. These communities represented lower than 4% of all places within the U.S.