National numbers, April 24
After weeks of me warning about it, a BA.2 surge is upon us. Nationwide, new COVID-19 cases have gone up for the third week in a row; we’ve seen a 68% increase since the last week of March.
Read MoreTag: April data
National numbers, April 17
New COVID-19 cases in the U.S. have gone up for the second week in a row, and the increase was sharper this week. While the daily average of new cases (about 31,000) remains low compared to the Omicron surge, this trend is still concerning—especially when factoring in all the at-home rapid tests that are going unreported right now.
Read MoreNational numbers, April 10
After several weeks in a plateau, new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. are once again going up at the national level. The CDC reported an average of 27,000 new cases a day last week—less than one-tenth of what we saw during the Omicron surge, but still a notable uptick from the week prior.
Read MoreNational numbers, April 25
After several weeks of rising cases, the federal numbers dropped this week by about 10%. Michigan’s case rates fell below 500 new cases per 100,000 people and its positivity rate is trending downward, leading public health experts to hope that this state’s worrying outbreak may have peaked. As always, though, we can’t get too excited about a single-week trend—and 60,000 new cases each day is still a concerning level at which to plateau.
Read MoreNational numbers, April 18
I am really worried about Michigan. The state comprises a full 11% of new U.S. cases in the past week—and Michigan only makes up 3% of the national population. Nationally, cases continue to rise, driven by B.1.1.7 and other coronavirus variants
Read MoreNational numbers, April 11
This is the fourth week in a row of case increases in the U.S. While this week’s jump is lower (we went from 57,000 new daily cases two weeks ago, to 63,000 last week, to 64,000 this week), the level where we’ve landed is still reason for concern. Our case numbers now are comparable to last July, when the summer surge was threatening hospital systems in the South and West.
Read MoreNational numbers, April 4
The pandemic’s current state puts public health leaders like Dr. Walensky in a challenging position. New cases continue to rise, with states like Michigan, New York, New Jersey, and other parts of the northeast seeing more concerning spikes. While a 60,000-cases-per-day average may seem small compared to the numbers we saw this winter, it’s comparable to the summer surge that devastated much of the country. And our still-improving genomic surveillance system is finding more and more cases caused by variants.
Read More