As a seasonal slew of respiratory illnesses circulate, it’s Covid that continues to send the most people to the hospital, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.
“Covid is still the primary cause of new respiratory virus hospitalizations and death,” CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen said at a briefing for reporters Friday.
The virus is responsible for about 15,000 hospitalizations and 1,000 deaths every week, she said.
With the CDC no longer tracking case numbers nationally, wastewater sampling — which looks for the virus in sewage — is the best way to gauge Covid activity across the country. According to the CDC’s wastewater dashboard, viral activity is rising nationally and highest in the Midwest.
The Midwest data could be a sign of what’s to come this winter as temperatures fall.
It’s not particularly surprising, given the weather, said Tara Smith, a professor of epidemiology at Kent State University in Ohio.
“What we’ve seen in the last couple years is that the South seems to start the wave earlier in warm weather because they’re going inside for AC, and the northern states tend to start earlier with cold weather because we’re stuck inside because of miserable weather outside,” she said.
In addition to the colder weather, as holiday travel starts to pick up, experts are expecting a rise in Covid infections to come with it.
What about the variants?
A Covid variant called HV.1 remains the predominant strain in the United States as of Nov. 25, accounting for about 32% of new cases, according to the CDC.
There are signs, however, that other variants may be picking up steam. The BA.2.86 variant, which was first detected over the summer, tripled in prevalence for the week ending Nov. 25 compared to the week before, up to 9% of new cases from 3%.
The variant gained the attention of experts over the summer because of its high number of mutations. (NBC)