{"id":16311,"date":"2023-08-02T04:39:40","date_gmt":"2023-08-02T09:39:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=16311"},"modified":"2023-08-02T04:39:44","modified_gmt":"2023-08-02T09:39:44","slug":"u-s-covid-hospitalizations-climb-for-second-straight-week-is-it-a-summer-surge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=16311","title":{"rendered":"U.S. COVID hospitalizations climb for second straight week. Is it a summer surge?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Weekly COVID-19<\/u><\/a> hospitalizations have risen by more than 12% across the country, according to new data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, marking a second straight week of this key indicator of the virus climbing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least 8,035 hospital admissions of patients diagnosed with COVID-19<\/u><\/a> were reported<\/u><\/a> for the week of July 22 nationwide, the CDC said late Monday, up from 7,165 during the week before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another important hospital metric has also been trending up in recent weeks: an average of 0.92% of the past week’s emergency room visits<\/u><\/a> had COVID-19 as of July 28, up from 0.51% through June 28.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new figures come after months of largely slowing COVID-19 trends nationwide since the last wave of infections over the winter, and again mark the largest percent increases in these key indicators of the virus since December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“U.S. COVID-19 rates are still near historic lows after 7 months of steady declines. \u202fEarly indicators of COVID-19 activity (emergency department visits,\u202ftest positivity and\u202fwastewater levels) preceded an increase in hospitalizations seen this past week,” CDC spokesperson Kathleen Conley said in a statement on July 25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conley said virtually all counties are at “low”\u00a0COVID-19 hospital admission levels<\/u><\/a>, below the thresholds at which the CDC recommends additional precautions to curb the virus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previous summer waves also saw steeper increases compared to what has been seen so far this year. The U.S. is averaging 1,729 more admissions per week compared to a month prior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2022, hospitalizations peaked over the summer at 44,728 admissions for the week of July 23, 2022, after a wave of Omicron infections<\/u><\/a> that strained some hospitals. That was nearly 12,000 more admissions compared to the rate seen a month prior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2021, a sharp increase driven by the Delta variant saw hospitalizations surge by 20,029 more from June to July, reaching 32,850 hospitalized through July 24, 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The U.S. has experienced increases in COVID-19 during the past three summers, so it’s not surprising to see an uptick,” Conley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Projections have differed over what the coming months will hold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An ensemble of academic and federal modelers said last month<\/u><\/a> that the “main period of COVID19 activity is expected to occur in late fall and early winter over the next 2 years, with median peak incidence between November and mid January.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They cautioned that there were considerable differences between models within the group, with some teams projecting an additional smaller peak elsewhere in the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike previous waves, no single variant has yet emerged this summer to dominate infections nationwide. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, the CDC’s recent projections<\/u><\/a> estimate that a mix of descendants from the XBB variant that first drove infections last winter are now competing around the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Largest among these XBB subvariants are infections grouped as the XBB.1.16, XBB.1.9.1, XBB.2.3, XBB.1.6 or EG.5 strains, which each make up between 10% and 15% of infections nationwide. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experts had previously singled out<\/u><\/a> EG.5 as one of the fastest growing lineages worldwide. EG.5 is a descendant of the XBB.1.9.2 variant, with an additional mutation that might be helping it outcompete other strains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“At this time, CDC’s genomic surveillance indicates that the increase in infections is caused by strains closely related to the Omicron strains that have been circulating since early 2022,” said Conley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It comes as health authorities have been racing to prepare for a new round of COVID-19 vaccinations this fall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Updated vaccines are expected to be available by late September, the CDC said earlier this month<\/u><\/a>, after the FDA requested<\/u><\/a> that drugmakers begin producing new formulations targeting these kinds of XBB strains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Government distribution of current supplies is due to wind down this week in advance of the update, which will also mark the switchover to a traditional commercial market for vaccines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the CDC says current supplies of shots will still be shipped until September for “exceptional” situations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“While many individuals may wait to receive a COVID-19 vaccine until the updated version is released, as it is expected to provide more robust protection against currently circulating variants, certain individuals may need or desire a COVID-19 vaccine prior to the anticipated release of the updated vaccine in the fall,” the agency said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cbsnews<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Weekly COVID-19 hospitalizations have risen by more than 12% across the country, according to new data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, marking a second straight week of this key indicator of the virus climbing.  At least 8,035 hospital admissions of patients diagnosed with COVID-19 were reported for the week of July 22 nationwide, the CDC said late […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":16312,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5784,1154],"tags":[1664,2883,10399,10400,608],"class_list":["post-16311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-trending","tag-cdc","tag-covid-19","tag-hospitalizations","tag-release-data","tag-up"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16311"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16313,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16311\/revisions\/16313"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}