The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a warning regarding the surge in COVID-19 hospitalisations in the United States. Recent data shows a significant 10% increase in hospitalisations, the sharpest rise since December 2022. During the week of July 15, the number of hospitalised COVID-19 patients surpassed 7,100, a notable increase from the previous week’s count of 6,444. Additionally, COVID-related emergency room visits have shown an upward trend, with around 0.73% of visits on July 21 attributed to COVID-19, compared to 0.49% a month earlier. Health authorities are closely monitoring the situation as a potential late-summer wave, especially in the Southeast, raises concerns.
Dr. Brendan Jackson, the CDC’s COVID incident manager in Atlanta, told NPR, “After roughly six, seven months of steady declines, things are starting to tick back up again.”
“We’ve seen the early indicators go up for the past several weeks. And just this week, for the first time in a long time, we’ve seen hospitalisations tick up as well,” he added.
“This could be the start of a late summer wave,” he continued, highlighting that the spikes have been significant in the Southeast.
More concerning are the “mutagenic” subvariants emerging in Asia, but for most people in the US, “these early signs don’t need to mean much,” he said.
CDC spokesperson Kathleen Conley also commented on the early indicators of COVID-19 activity, such as emergency department visits, test positivity, and wastewater levels, which preceded the increase in hospitalisations. However, she highlighted that COVID rates in the US are still at “near-historic lows,” and overall infection-related deaths are declining, reaching the lowest rate since the CDC began tracking.
Dr. Marc Siegel, a professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Centre, shared his insights with Fox News, stating that a summer surge is underway. He mentioned the likelihood of recommending the new XBB subvariant booster in the fall, especially for those in high-risk groups who haven’t recently had an infection or vaccine. While he acknowledged the slight uptick in hospitalisations, he emphasised that the infections mostly remain mild and that most people with prior immunity from vaccination or prior infection are at lower risk.