By Marie Rosenthal, MS
The Department of Health and Human Services extended the public emergency declaration to October as COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths are on the rise.
As of July 13, 2022, the seven-day average of daily new cases (124,048) increased 15.7% compared with the previous seven-day average (107,174), bringing the total tally to 88.93 million COVID-19 cases. Thirty-two percent of Americans are living in a community with a high level of COVID-19 transmission and 43% are living in an area with a medium community level, according to CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH, who spoke at a White House COVID Response Team briefing on July 12.
New hospitalizations have also increased, up 14.4% over the previous seven-day average to 5,851 per day from 5,115 daily. Among those 65 years of age and older, hospitalizations began increasing April 2, according to the CDC. Although they remain elevated among older adults, they haven’t changed in recent weeks, the agency said, ranging from 15.8 to 28.9 per 100,000 between May 14 and June 25.
Although the weekly increase is smaller than that seen during past waves, it has more than doubled since early May, according to Dr. Walensky, at the White House briefing.
Unfortunately, deaths have also increased, according to the CDC. The seven-day average of new deaths is 352, an increase of 12.6% compared with the previous seven days at 312 per day. As of July 13, more than 1.018 million people have died in the United States from COVID-19.
These increases are being driven by variants of omicron that are more transmissible than previous variants, according to Dr. Walensky, with sublineages BA.4 and BA.5 increasing throughout the country. The CDC estimates that 65% (95% PI, 62.2%-67.7%) of circulating strains are BA.5, followed by BA.2.12.1 (17.3%) and BA.4 (16.3%), as of July 9. Although there is still circulating BA.2, it is less than 3% of circulating strains, according to the CDC.
“We do not know yet about the clinical severity of BA.4 and BA.5 in comparison to our other omicron subvariants, but we do know it to be more transmissible and more immune-evading. People with prior infection, even with BA.1 or BA.2, are likely still at risk for BA.4 or BA.5,” Dr. Walensky said.
At the briefing, Dr. Walensky said many people are not completely up-to-date on their COVID-19 vaccination and could be at risk for severe disease. Only 28% of adults older than 50 have received second boosters.
Among people ages 50 and older, those vaccinated with a primary series and only one booster dose had four times the risk for dying from COVID-19, compared with those who had a primary series and two or more booster doses, she explained.
A new CDC study found that a second booster can restore vaccine protection against hospitalization that might have fallen over time. New surveillance data have also shown that a second booster provides additional protection against death from COVID-19 in people ages 50 and older.
