Omicron BA.4.6, a newer version of BA.4, is currently more prevalent in the Midwest than other regions of the country. Chart via the CDC, retrieved September 4.
Slow rise of BA.4.6 is worth watching: As I mentioned in today’s National Numbers post, a newer subvariant labeled BA.4.6 is gaining ground over other versions of Omicron in the U.S. BA.4.6 evolved from BA.4, and has an additional mutation in the virus’ spike protein that enables it to bypass protection from prior infections. It’s unclear whether BA.4.6 will be able to fully outcompete BA.5, which is currently causing the vast majority of U.S. COVID-19 cases—these two strains are similar enough that the competition may go slowly. So far, the subvariant has been more prevalent in the Midwest than other regions of the country, according to CDC data. Also worth watching: BA.2.75, a subvariant that is dominating some European countries but hasn’t shown up significantly in the U.S. yet.
Up to 4 million people may be out of work due to Long COVID: Last week, policy research organization the Brookings Institute published a new report discussing the massive impacts Long COVID is having on America’s labor force. The report utilizes recent data from the Household Pulse Survey (released in June) estimating Long COVID prevalence, in conjunction with research on how many long-haulers might be out of work due to their condition. The results: between two and four million Americans potentially lost their jobs (or are working significantly less) due to Long COVID, costing at least $170 billion a year in lost wages. Even the low ends of these estimates are staggering.
U.S. life expectancy declined again in 2021: Americans born in 2021 may expect to live for 76 years on average, according to the CDC’s National Vital Statistics System. This is the lowest life expectancy has been since 1996. CDC researchers attribute the sharp decline in the last two years to the pandemic and drug overdose deaths. Disparities in life expectancy have also increased: Native Americans born in 2021 may expect to live only 65 years on average and Black Americans may expect to live 71 years, compared to 76 years for white Americans.
Biobot expands wastewater surveillance for opioid tracking: In the last couple of months, we’ve seen wastewater used to track monkeypox and polio, in addition to COVID-19—suggesting the technology’s capacity for broader public health surveillance. This week, leading wastewater company Biobot announced a new initiative to track opioid use and other high-risk substance use through a similar platform to its current COVID-19 efforts. Tracking the opioid crisis was actually the original focus for Biobot’s founders pre-pandemic, so it’s notable to see the company expanding in this direction now.
In the past week (August 27 through September 2), the U.S. reported about 590,000 new COVID-19 cases, according to the CDC. This amounts to:
An average of 80,000 new cases each day
179 total new cases for every 100,000 Americans
8% fewer new cases than last week (August 20-26)
In the past week, the U.S. also reported about 36,000 new COVID-19 patients admitted to hospitals. This amounts to:
An average of 5,100 new admissions each day
10.8 total admissions for every 100,000 Americans
4% fewer new admissions than last week
Additionally, the U.S. reported:
2,800 new COVID-19 deaths (0.9 for every 100,000 people)
89% of new cases are caused by Omicron BA.5; 8% by BA.4.6 (as of September 3)
An average of 70,000 vaccinations per day (per Bloomberg)
Over the past month, COVID-19 trends in the U.S. have been fairly consistent: disease spread has declined slowly around the country. Official case counts dropped from about 120,000 a day in the first week of August, to about 80,000 a day last week.
New hospital admissions, a more reliable metric these days, have also declined. A month ago, U.S. hospitals were admitting over 6,000 new COVID-19 patients a day; last week, that number was about 5,000. Wastewater data from Biobot and from the CDC suggest that this trend has been broadly consistent across different regions.
But coronavirus transmission is not currently at low levels by any means. For example, look at Biobot’s national chart showing virus concentration in wastewater compared to officially-reported case numbers. From case numbers alone, you might think that COVID-19 is much less prevalent now than it was in late August or early September last year. But the wastewater data reveal that transmission now is actually pretty close to early-Delta surge levels. (It is, in fact, PCR testing that has declined.)
Similarly, the CDC’s Community Transmission Levels (also known as the older metrics, based on cases and test positivity) show that about 90% of U.S. counties are currently facing high transmission and should require masks indoors. Even the current—and much more lenient—Community Levels suggest that more than half of the country is in a high- or medium-COVID-risk zone.
The summer surge has waned so slowly thanks to the U.S.’s complete abandonment of measures to mitigate COVID-19’s spread, combined with the rise of newer Omicron subvariants. BA.5 continues to dominate here, causing almost 90% of new cases in the week ending September 3, though it’s facing competition from BA.4.6: a version of BA.4 that appears to have a slight advantage.
Most experts agree that we will probably face another surge this fall and winter, as more people gather inside and travel for the holidays. The question is how severe that wave will be, which may be determined via a contest between updated vaccines (more on that later in the issue) and the coronavirus’ continued capacity for mutation.
One potential sign of such a wave: wastewater surveillance in South Africa has picked up an increase in coronavirus concentration, Bloomberg reported yesterday. Also: your usual reminder to be wary of data trends in the days following the holiday weekend.
In the past week (July 23 through 29), the U.S. reported about 880,000 new COVID-19 cases, according to the CDC. This amounts to:
An average of 130,000 new cases each day
269 total new cases for every 100,000 Americans
1% fewer new cases than last week (July 16-22)
In the past week, the U.S. also reported about 44,000 new COVID-19 patients admitted to hospitals. This amounts to:
An average of 6,300 new admissions each day
13.5 total admissions for every 100,000 Americans
2% more new admissions than last week
Additionally, the U.S. reported:
2,500 new COVID-19 deaths (0.8 for every 100,000 people)
82% of new cases are caused by Omicron BA.5; 13% by BA.4 (as of July 23)
An average of 100,000 vaccinations per day (per Bloomberg)
The U.S.’s Omicron BA.5 wave appears to be creeping past its plateau, according to several major indicators. Nationwide, 1% fewer new cases were reported this week compared to last week, the second week in a row of clear deceleration in this metric (with no major holidays interrupting reports).
New hospital admissions are also slowing down: the number of COVID-19 patients newly admitted to hospitals this week was only 2% higher than it was last week. It’s a smaller increase than any reported week-over-week in the last couple of months.
And the plateau is showing up in wastewater, too: data from Biobot Analytics show that the coronavirus concentration in America’s sewers dipped slightly last week in all four regions of the country. About 55% of sewersheds in the CDC’s wastewater surveillance network reported coronavirus decreases or very slight increases in the last week, compared to 45% reporting more significant increases.
To me, these metrics are suggesting that the Omicron subvariant wave may be, finally, running out of people to infect (or reinfect). But the decline is incredibly slow, likely because the U.S. has taken almost no measures to curb transmission.
The CDC’s community transmission guidance (also known as the old guidance, pre-February 2022 switch to “Community Levels”) suggests that Americans in 98% of counties should be masking indoors right now. But almost no state or local public health departments have actually brought back mask requirements. Even Los Angeles County failed to institute its planned indoor mask mandate, due to public pushback at the measure and cases trending down.
Remember all the gaslighting from folks who said ‘we have to get rid of masks now while cases are lower so we have more credibility to bring them back when cases get higher’ and now we’ve met the metrics for being back masks and… nothing. https://t.co/3GGMjwgDTg
Meanwhile, testing indicators continue to suggest that reported case counts are a small fraction of the actual coronavirus infections happening across the country right now. The national PCR test positivity rate was 18% last week, according to the CDC; and almost every state reported a positivity rate over 10%, according to the July 28 Community Profile Report. (Experts consider test positivity over 10% to be evidence of high transmission and insufficient testing.)
As fewer PCR tests are conducted, the companies that process these tests are laying off workers and cutting their capacity, according to the Wall Street Journal. Even some companies that make at-home rapid tests are taking these measures, though rapid test capacity is still much higher than PCR testing capacity right now.
The safety measures that can prevent coronavirus transmission have not changed with BA.5. Individuals and small communities still have the ability to keep using masks, testing, gathering in outdoor spaces, etc., even as our institutions fail to keep us safe.
As if BA.4 and BA.5 aren’t already enough to worry about: some COVID-19 experts are sounding the alarm about BA.2.75, a new version of Omicron that evolved out of BA.2.
This subvariant was first identified in India in late May, and has now been reported in the U.K., Germany, and several other countries, according to the World Health Organization. Scientists are concerned because it has new spike protein mutations that could heighten its ability to bypass immunity from past infections or vaccinations—including, potentially, from BA.4 or BA.5.
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) July 5, 2022
At least three BA.2.75 cases have been reported in the U.S. so far, according to a Friday press release from the surveillance company Helix. Two of these cases were on the West Coast, in Washington and California. These cases are currently lumped in with other versions of BA.2 on the CDC dashboard.
The information on BA.2.75 is fairly preliminary at this point; the WHO is monitoring it as an additional lineage of Omicron, not a separate variant of concern, and watching for new data. It’s unclear how competitive it might be with BA.5, now dominant in the U.S., but is worth keeping an eye on. As Dr. Katelyn Jetelina points out in a recent issue of Your Local Epidemiologist, the spread of BA.2.75 could further complicate fall booster shot plans.
Almost the entire country is currently experiencing high COVID-19 transmission, according to the old CDC guidance. And that’s just the cases we know about.
In the past week (July 2 through 8), the U.S. reported about 750,000 new COVID-19 cases, according to the CDC. This amounts to:
An average of 110,000 new cases each day
227 total new cases for every 100,000 Americans
4% fewer new cases than last week (June 25-July 1)
In the past week, the U.S. also reported about 36,000 new COVID-19 patients admitted to hospitals. This amounts to:
An average of 5,000 new admissions each day
10.8 total admissions for every 100,000 Americans
3% more new admissions than last week
Additionally, the U.S. reported:
1,900 new COVID-19 deaths (0.6 for every 100,000 people)
27% of new cases are Omicron BA.2.12.1-caused; 70% BA.4/BA.5-caused (as of July 2)
An average of 150,000 vaccinations per day (per Bloomberg)
Our prolonged Omicron subvariant surge continues, now dominated clearly by BA.5. While reported COVID-19 cases dipped slightly last week at the national level, this is almost certainly a result of the July 4 holiday rather than an actual slowing in coronavirus transmission.
As evidence, note that the number of COVID-19 patients newly reported to hospitals—a metric less impacted by holidays—continued to rise last week. About 5,000 new patients were admitted each day, double the hospitalization rate in early May.
Anecdotally, it seems like everyone knows someone who has COVID-19, even if their cases aren’t making it into official data due to at-home tests. And many of those people sick right now already had Omicron BA.1—or even BA.2—earlier this year. Such is the power of BA.4 and BA.5, the subvariants that have taken over the U.S. and many other countries in recent weeks.
BA.5 in particular seems to have a competitive advantage over all other Omicron subvariants. It’s now causing the majority of new COVID-19 cases in the country, with the most recent CDC estimates placing it at 54% prevalence as of July 2. This recent New York Magazine article does a good job of explaining by BA.5 is so worrying, as does this piece in the Guardian.
To quote from Melody Schreiber’s Guardian article:
“Covid-19 is very clearly not over. We’re seeing dramatic increases in the number of cases and hospitalizations in many places throughout the United States,” said Jason Salemi, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of South Florida’s College of Public Health.
As BA.5, one of the Omicron sub-variants, begins buffeting the US, “we’re headed in a bad direction”, Salemi said. “We’ve seen it coming for a while … We’ve seen it go pretty unabated.”
More than one in three Americans live in a county at medium risk from Covid, and one in five are at high risk, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) . That’s the highest proportion of the country facing risks since February, Salemi said.
Wastewater data from Biobot similarly shows transmission continuing to plateau or increase throughout the country. The Northeast, one region where BA.2 and BA.2.12.1 seemed to peak a couple of weeks ago, is now reporting case increases again. In New York City, for example, all five boroughs are now back in the CDC’s “high risk for hospitalizations” category.
As this surge continues, essential workers and those who are medically vulnerable continue to be most at risk. Remember this, when you consider masking and other precautions.
Interesting to note the job losses in sectors where working conditions have deteriorated (including, but not limited to, their high risk of sars-cov-2 exposure). Much of these losses are among what we briefly called "essential workers". https://t.co/YmofdGBMOz
This week, the FDA’s vaccine advisory committee met to discuss fall booster shots, in anticipation of another COVID-19 surge next winter. The discussion demonstrated the U.S.’s continued failure to provide the data that are really needed to make these decisions.
I have written a lot about this topic in the past, so to avoid being too repetitive, I’ll link to a couple of past articles:
But here’s the TL;DR: due to the fractured nature of America’s public health system, it’s difficult for researchers to connect data on different health metrics. For example, a state might have one database with vaccination records and another database with case records, and the databases might not easily link to answer questions about breakthrough cases.
Some state health departments have figured out how to make these links, but the process is not uniform. And the breakthrough case data we do have generally aren’t linked to information on variants, or demographic data, or outcomes like Long COVID.
The more specific the vaccine effectiveness question, the more complicated it becomes to answer. This is a bigger problem now as the FDA considers fall boosters, because the agency needs to determine the best vaccine candidate and identify priority populations for shots—while operating in a politcal climate where vaccine funding is less popular than it was a year ago.
Should the fall booster be a monovalent vaccine, meaning it only includes Omicron-specific genetic material? Or should it be bivalent, meaning it includes both Omicron and the original, Wuhan strain? Pfizer and Moderna presented different options; some experts say a bivalent vaccine may provide more long-term protection.
Should the booster shot be specific to BA.4 and BA.5? The panel agreed that it should, as these strains are now dominant in the U.S., but there’s a timing trade-off as vaccine companies have yet to do clinical trials (or provide substantial data) for a subvariant-specific vaccine.
Should the booster shot be another type of vaccine entirely? In addition to Pfizer and Moderna, the FDA panel also heard from Novavax. This company has developed a protein-based vaccine that hasn’t yet received FDA authorization, but panelists were impressed by its potential for long-term protection.
How well do the vaccines provide non-antibody-based protection? As in past advisory committee meetings, the vaccine companies primarily presented data based on antibodies generated from their shots. Experts wanted to see more data about T cells and other aspects of immunity which are harder to measure, but may be more important in the long term.
Who would most benefit from another booster? If the federal government isn’t able to buy enough shots for everyone, priortization will need to happen. Will Omicron-specific boosters be most useful for seniors, or for people with certain health conditions? These groups will likely get priority again, though we could still be collecting more data on how the vaccines fare for them.
Of course, despite the dearth of data and cautions from some members of the FDA advisory committee, the U.S. government seems to be going full-speed ahead with fall boosters. The Biden administration has placed a $3.2 billion order from Pfizer for 105 million doses of whichever Omicron-specific vaccine the FDA chooses to authorize.
New hospital admissions for COVID-19 increased 12% last week over the week prior, a signal of the continued surge. Chart via the CDC.
In the past week (June 25 through July 1), the U.S. reported about 800,000 new COVID-19 cases, according to the CDC. This amounts to:
An average of 110,000 new cases each day
234 total new cases for every 100,000 Americans
11% more new cases than last week (June 18-24)
In the past week, the U.S. also reported about 35,000 new COVID-19 patients admitted to hospitals. This amounts to:
An average of 5,000 new admissions each day
10.6 total admissions for every 100,000 Americans
12% more new admissions than last week
Additionally, the U.S. reported:
2,200 new COVID-19 deaths (0.7 for every 100,000 people)
48% of new cases are Omicron BA.2.12.1-caused; 52% BA.4/BA.5-caused (as of June 25)
An average of 150,000 vaccinations per day (per Bloomberg)
BA.4 and BA.5 are now the dominant coronavirus lineages in the U.S., and they’re reviving our recent surge: from the plateau of recent weeks, national COVID-19 cases are clearly going up again. Reported cases rose 11% last week from the week prior. And, as always, this number is a significant undercount of true infections.
New hospital admissions also went up last week: about 5,000 Americans were admitted to hospitals with COVID-19 each day, up 12% from the week prior. While the vast majority of COVID-19 cases may now be mild—thanks to vaccinations, prior infections, and treatments—this is a reminder that severe symptoms are still very possible.
Wastewater data from Biobot indicate a continued plateau in transmission at the national level. At the regional level, COVID-19 levels are trending down in the West and South, but ticking up again in the Northeast, likely as BA.4 and BA.5 take over from BA.2.12.1 in these areas.
In my FAQ post last month ago, I wrote that scientists weren’t yet sure whether BA.4 and BA.5 would be able to outcompete BA.2.12.1, the offshoot of BA.2 first identified in New York. Now, it seems clear that BA.4 and BA.5 are capable of dominating: these two subvariants caused over half of new cases nationwide in the week ending June 25, as well as in most regions.
Missouri wastewater update. Numbers up again slightly from last week. BA.4/5 has overtaken BA.2.12.1 by a nose. The other Omicron sub-variants are holding steady. Still no sign of BA.2.75. This is the cumulative data from 61 sewersheds. pic.twitter.com/z9MUYkRylC
Even places like New York City, which saw a major BA.2/BA.2.12.1 wave, is now reporting another uptick in cases, according to data from the local health department. The city’s test positivity rate went over 10% on Thursday for the first time since January, a signal of the underreporting in recent weeks as PCR testing becomes less popular. And yet, city leadership is not interested in implementing any new safety precautions.
Remember, the problem with these subvariants is that they’re built for reinfection. Even if you had Omicron BA.1 in the winter, or even had BA.2 this spring, you could easily get BA.4 or BA.5. These infections are, at best, a week-long inconvenience, and at worst, could turn into Long COVID.
The holiday tomorrow will interrupt COVID-19 reporting, as holidays always do. Stay safe this weekend, and don’t be fooled if you see a brief downturn in case numbers.
BA.4 and BA.5 (teal) are competing with BA.2.12.1 (red), with different lineages dominating in different parts of the country. CDC estimates reflect the week from June 12 to June 18.
In the past week (June 18 through 24), the U.S. reported about 680,000 new COVID-19 cases, according to the CDC. This amounts to:
An average of 100,000 new cases each day
208 total new cases for every 100,000 Americans
6% fewer new cases than last week (June 11-17)
In the past week, the U.S. also reported about 31,000 new COVID-19 patients admitted to hospitals. This amounts to:
An average of 4,400 new admissions each day
9.3 total admissions for every 100,000 Americans
1% more new admissions than last week
Additionally, the U.S. reported:
1,800 new COVID-19 deaths (0.5 for every 100,000 people)
56% of new cases are Omicron BA.2.12.1-caused; 35% BA.4/BA.5-caused (as of June 18)
An average of 50,000 vaccinations per day (per Bloomberg)
America’s Omicron subvariant surge continues to be in a plateau this week, with national COVID-19 case rates, hospitalization rates, and wastewater trends remaining fairly level or showing slight declines.
The U.S. has reported a weekly average between 100,000 and 110,000 new cases a day since mid-May, according to the CDC. These numbers are massive undercounts, as about five times more rapid antigen tests are being conducted in the U.S. than PCR tests, so the true trend is difficult to discern—but we can safely say that there is a lot of coronavirus circulating throughout the country.
New hospital admissions, the number of COVID-19 patients who sought treatment, rose slightly in the last week: about 4,400 patients were admitted each day nationwide, compared to 4,300 last week. Wastewater data from Biobot shows a national plateau, as coronavirus levels drop in the Northeast and West while rising in the South and remaining stagnant in the Midwest.
Why this prolonged plateau? Most likely, the rise of immune-evading Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 is preventing a BA.2-initiated wave from truly dipping back down. Estimates from the CDC suggest that BA.4 and BA.5 may even be outcompeting BA.2.12.1: the share of U.S. cases caused by BA.2.12.1 dropped for the first time in the CDC’s latest variant prevalence update, from 63% in the week ending June 11 to 56% in the week ending June 18.
Regions with a higher share of BA.4 and BA.5—namely, Gulf Coast states, the Midwest, and the West Coast—are also reporting case increases. A few state hotspots that stick out in the (admittedly, poor) official case counts: Hawaii, Florida, New Mexico, Alaska, and California all reported more than 250 new cases per 100,000 people in the week ending June 22.
In the Northeast, BA.2.12.1 is still causing a majority of cases, but BA.4 and BA.5 are gaining some ground. This may explain why places like New York City are seeing case trends that simply refuse to go down as quickly as we’ve observed in past waves, though a lack of new safety measures is likely also playing a role.
NYC this plateau is stressing me out*
*the usual caveats about underreporting, antigen tests not included, etc apply pic.twitter.com/6wKgebObOn
Meanwhile, vaccination rates remain the lowest they’ve been since late 2020. Fewer than 25,000 people received a first vaccine dose in the week ending June 21, according to the CDC. I was expecting to see a bump from children under five finally becoming eligible for vaccination, but it has not shown up in the data yet—likely another signal of current apathy towards COVID-19 safety.
BA.4 and BA.5 caused more than 20% of new COVID-19 cases nationwide in the week ending June 11, according to CDC estimates.
This week, I had a new story published at TIME’s online news site, explaining what Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 could mean for COVID-19 trends in the U.S.
The story makes similar points to my FAQ post on these subvariants from earlier in June: basically, BA.4 and BA.5 have evolved to get around antibodies from a prior coronavirus infection or vaccination, and the U.S. is likely to see a lot of reinfections from these subvariants—even among people who already had BA.1 or BA.2 earlier this year. BA.2.12.1 has mutated in a similar way, leading experts to suspect that one of these subvariants (or all three) will dominate the next phase of the pandemic.
When I talked to variant experts for my TIME story, I asked them for their thoughts on surveillance. “Is it getting harder to identify and track new linages like BA.4 and BA.5 as fewer people use PCR tests and more use at-home tests?” I asked. “What improvements or shifts would you like to see in surveillance?”
All three experts I spoke to had different perspectives, which I found interesting—and worth sharing in the COVID-19 Data Dispatch, since I wasn’t able to include this (somewhat wonkier) information in my TIME story.
Here’s what they said:
Marc Johnson, a microbiology and immunology professor at the University of Missouri who leads the state’s wastewater surveillance program, thinks that expanding wastewater monitoring is the way to go (though he admitted his bias, as someone who works in this area). “Sewershed monitoring is a really good way to track variants going forward,” he said. “It gives you a comprehensive view without costing you hundreds of thousands of dollars… or without having to sequence a thousand people.”
Shishi Luo, associate director of bioinformatics and infectious diseases at Helix (a genomics and viral surveillance company), is thinking about how to ensure her company consistently receives enough PCR test samples to get useful data from sequencing. At the moment, pharmacies and community testing sites are still providing enough samples that Helix has sufficient information to track variants, she said. But, anticipating that those numbers may dwindle, Helix is connecting with urgent care clinics and hospitals that do diagnostic testing. “I think those places will continue to collect samples and perform qPCR tests,” she said.
Paul Bieniasz, a professor at Rockefeller University who studies viral evolution, thinks that the current levels of surveillance are sufficient—at least, when it comes to policymaking and updating vaccines. “I would like to keep surveillance at a level such that such that we can have a pretty accurate picture about what’s going on,” he said. But he wants to prioritize “the really important things”: namely, understanding changes to vaccine effectiveness, which treatments to use, and identifying a new “major antigenic shift” like the one that produced Omicron as soon as it occurs.
“But it can always be better,” he said. “The more intense the surveillance, the more sensitive it is, and the earlier you detect things that might be of concern in the future.”
In the past week (June 11 through 17), the U.S. reported about 700,000 new COVID-19 cases, according to the CDC. This amounts to:
An average of 100,000 new cases each day
215 total new cases for every 100,000 Americans
8% fewer new cases than last week (June 4-10)
In the past week, the U.S. also reported about 30,000 new COVID-19 patients admitted to hospitals. This amounts to:
An average of 4,300 new admissions each day
9.2 total admissions for every 100,000 Americans
5% more new admissions than last week
Additionally, the U.S. reported:
1,900 new COVID-19 deaths (0.6 for every 100,000 people)
64% of new cases are Omicron BA.2.12.1-caused; 22% BA.4/BA.5-caused (as of June 11)
An average of 130,000 vaccinations per day (per Bloomberg)
National COVID-19 cases appeared to plateau this week, as some parts of the country seem to have peaked in their Omicron subvariants wave while others are still reporting increasing transmission. The CDC reported an average of 100,000 cases each day—as always, this is a significant undercount of actual infections due to changing test availability.
Major indicators are showing continued high transmission around the country. National cases have leveled off or slightly dipped, but the number of new COVID-19 patients admitted to hospitals increased by 5% compared to the prior week—continuing a trend of steady increases since early April. (Hospitalization trends usually lag case trends, but the increased unreliability in case reporting may have shifted this.)
Wastewater surveillance also suggests that COVID-19 spread remains at high levels nationwide, with a very slight dip in the last week, according to Biobot’s tracker. The Northeast region is a couple of weeks past the point of its surge, at this point; data from individual Northeast cities like Boston, New York City, and New Haven, Connecticut back up this trend.
West Coast, Midwest, and Southern states continue to report rising or plateauing transmission, according to Biobot. Wyoming, Nevada, Montana, and Utah reported the highest increases in official case counts this week (compared to the prior week), according to the June 16 Community Profile Report.
Some of these Midwest and Southern states are also reporting high prevalences of BA.4 and BA.5, the latest (and, likely, most contagious) Omicron subvariants yet. The CDC estimates that these two lineages caused about 21% of new cases nationwide in the week ending June 11. But these data are always reported with a significant lag, suggesting that the true prevalence could be closer to 50%.
As many of our local leaders, workplaces, and social circles continue to pretend that the pandemic is over—when we are actually facing one of the country’s biggest COVID-19 waves yet—remember that there are still options to protect yourself and your community. Safety measures like wearing a good mask, testing frequently, and gathering outdoors or in well-ventilated spaces are more important than ever.
COVID-19 Data Dispatch 