October 16, 2023 – Severe cases of COVID-19 requiring hospitalization proceed to say no within the U.S., based on the CDC's latest update on the pandemic.
Hospitalizations fell 8% within the week ending Oct. 7, continuing a downward trend that began in early September. With 16,766 recent people hospitalized in the primary week of October, the speed continues to be removed from the record low of 6,300 in June. The CDC considers hospitalization to be a sign of the severity of the strains currently circulating.
In the primary week of October, COVID accounted for about 2.5% of all U.S. deaths, a slight decrease from the previous week. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the disease has contributed to a complete of 1.15 million deaths.
Indicators of how common COVID is spread on the community level also proceed to say no. According to the agency, emergency room visits resulting from COVID fell nearly 18% and the speed of positive tests fell a couple of percentage point to 10% COVID data tracker.
The decline within the virus can be reflected within the CDC's wastewater surveillance, which shows a decline in SARS-CoV-2 levels detected at roughly 1,000 monitoring sites. These values began to say no in September. Another wastewater tracker from Biobot analytics shows that detections in wastewater leveled off after months of decline.
The predominant variant stays EG.5, also generally known as “Eris,” which accounts for nearly 24% of all cases and tops the variant list as of August. A strain called HV.1 rose from about 13% to 19.5% prior to now two weeks. The other particularly common variants are FL.1.5.1 and XBB.1.16.6. The heavily mutated strain called BA.2.86, which alarmed health authorities over the summer, still doesn't appear on the CDC's watchlist, which lists variants with lower than 1% of cases within the United States
The CDC continues to encourage everyone 6 months of age and older to get a current COVID-19 booster shot this fall, even in the event that they have previously been vaccinated, to enhance protection against severe disease or death. The website Vaccines.gov offers a search tool to search out nearby clinics or pharmacies that provide the vaccinations.