August 6, 2024 – People are talking concerning the “summer COVID wave,” but the most recent wave of the virus has not yet subsided and is now colliding with the beginning of college.
New CDC data Figures released late Monday show that the speed of positive COVID tests increased 2 points to 16% within the week ending July 27. Emergency department visits with a COVID diagnosis also increased (they now account for two% of all emergency department visits). Wastewater The variety of detections of the virus that causes COVID has been rising steadily because the starting of May.
The level of virus activity within the nation's wastewater is currently greater than double what it was at the identical time last yr. Testing for traces of the virus in wastewater is taken into account a sophisticated indicator of whether COVID's impact on the population is rising or falling. According to the CDC's surveillance program, all but seven U.S. states currently report “high” or “very high” levels of SARS-CoV-2 (SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes COVID) wastewater. Levels remained “low” in New York and West Virginia, while moderate levels were observed in New Jersey, Michigan, Rhode Island and Arizona. No data was reported for North Dakota.
COVID-19 deaths increased 25% in the most recent reporting week, although the general fatality rate that week when all other causes of death are taken into consideration was 1.5%. The total variety of weekly COVID deaths nationwide has been below 500 since mid-April.
The currently dominant variants are still omicron derivatives, called KP.3 and KP.3.1.1, with the latter recently displacing KP.3 from the highest spot. The CDC estimates that KP.3.1.1 was liable for nearly 28% of U.S. infections within the week ending August 3, up from 14% two weeks earlier. The KP.3 variant slipped to second place and is now liable for about 20% of infections, up from about 24% within the previous two-week reporting period.
COVID expert Dr. Eric Topol, tweeted It was recently reported that KP.3.1.1 “poses a greater challenge to our immune response than KP.3 and earlier variants.”
Updated COVID vaccines are expected to be available later this month or in September.