4/14/2024 0 Comments California covid map"Get your mask out again if you're going indoors, even to the supermarket," Schaffner says. COVID-19 mask mandatesĪmid a rise in COVID cases, as well as influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), masks mandates have returned in medical settings in several states, Reuters reported:īut even if you're not required to mask, the experts say that now is a good time to wear your N95 or KN95. He adds that more virus circulating can also lead to increases in long COVID and chronic illness, more people (especially health care workers) missing work and other important events, and immunocompromised people not being able to access essential services, like health care. "While we're not seeing the same levels of hospitalizations or deaths as 2020 or 2021, it's still a very high baseline compared with before the pandemic, and that's something that we should still care about," Tran says. Tran stresses that it's important to understand the burden of COVID beyond hospitalizations and deaths being lower than they were earlier in the pandemic. “This winter increase is not going to be akin to the previous winter increases, which really stressed hospitals," though it is likely to keep medical professionals "very busy," he adds. “But I don’t want to panic people,” he explains. Albert Ko, infectious disease physician and professor of public health, epidemiology and medicine at Yale School of Public Health, agrees that focusing on peaks isn't as helpful as stressing that COVID is spreading widely in much of the country right now. "What's really troubling is just the total number of days with a really high transmission based on my model or if you're just looking at the wastewater."ĭr. "I think people can get a little bit too concerned about the height of the peak," Hoerger says. While CDC data suggest viral activity levels have been similar the last two Decembers, Hoerger explains that the acceleration in COVID activity in 2023 was faster than in 2022, suggesting there will be a higher peak this season. He says his data also show that on the highest day of the current wave, there will be 2 million new COVID cases, which would lend to many more infections than last winter, which had its highest day of about 1.7 million new infections. He estimates that mid-December 2023 to mid-February 2024 will be the peak of the current wave and that 1 in 3 Americans will be infected with COVID during this timeframe. He says his own predictive model indicates cases will continue to rise until mid-February. Hoerger tells that based on the wastewater data collected from Biobot Analytics (which used to provide the CDC its wastewater data), the U.S. It added that wastewater levels "are currently high and increasing in all regions." 5 statement that wastewater and test positivity data are both higher than the year before by about 27% and 17% respectively. Skinner did not specify if the current COVID wave is the country's second-largest. "These levels are much lower than the Omicron wave in early 2022," he says, adding that JN.1 is the most frequently detected variant in wastewater. We are seeing early evidence of the same timing this year, but we will continue to monitor closely," Skinner continues. "Last year, the peak of infections occurred in late December, early January. 6, 2023, to 11.79.ĬDC spokesperson Tom Skinner tells via email that "COVID 19 in wastewater is currently (at) very high levels across the country." 15, 2022, was 22.78.) However, the rate dipped for the week ending Jan. (The national rate for the week ending Jan. 30, 2023 is higher than anything seen since January 2022, as far back as the publicly available CDC data goes. A CDC chart of national and regional COVID trends in wastewater shows the national viral activity rate of 12.44 from the week ending Dec.
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