Blitz Bureau
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that COVID-19 levels across the United States are currently “very high” in more than half of the states, with Omicron variants KP.3 and KP.3.1.1 accounting for about half of all cases.
Data covers 32 states
Citing wastewater data as of August 15, the CDC said that “very high” COVID-19 levels are being observed in 32 states and the District of Columbia, and “high” levels are being observed in 11 states. All of the states along the West Coast and the Mountain states are in the “very high” range, according to the CDC.
A separate CDC dashboard shows that, for the week ending August 10, COVID-19 emergency department visits were slightly down, at 2.4 per cent from 2.5 per cent, while hospitalizations were slightly up, at 3.3 per cent from 3.2 per cent. During a previous increase in cases in December 2023, emergency department visits peaked at 3.4 per cent, according to CDC data.
COVID-19 related deaths, according to the same CDC data, have been at record low levels for roughly the past three months. For the week ending on August 3, there were 618 deaths recorded across the country, far lower than the roughly 2,000 deaths that were reported every week during the winter of 2023–2024, when there was the most-recent nationwide increase in COVID-19.
In the winter of 2020–2021, upward of 25,000 COVID-19 related deaths were tallied each week, according to CDC data.
Vaccines continue to work
In the current wave of COVID-19, the agency’s Nowcast tracker, which displays virus estimates for two-week periods, shows the Omicron-derived KP.3.1.1 strain accounting for 36.8 per cent of positive infections, while the KP.3 variant is at 16.8 per cent.
“At this time, we anticipate that COVID-19 treatments and vaccines will continue to work against all circulating variants,” the CDC spokesperson said, adding that the health agency is monitoring the severity of variants and whether vaccines are effective.
There is no information “currently indicating that this variant causes more severe COVID-19,” the CDC said, and it is expected to cause symptoms similar to those of other variants.
