Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) clearly indicates the COVID-19 pandemic is not done with us, as almost all metrics related to the SARS-CoV-2 virus (test positivity, ER visits, hospitalizations and wastewater signal) have been steadily rising for weeks. Deaths, which typically lag behind these statistics anyway, have stayed unchanged over the past week, but have still averaged over 1,000 deaths weekly for the last several weeks. More than 20,000 patients were hospitalized this week with COVID-19 symptoms.
Additionally, last week the CDC released new estimates that around 1 out of 10 new COVID-19 cases in the United States are coming from the BA.2.86 variant, nicknamed "Pirola," which is nearly three times the prevalence that experts had estimated two weeks earlier. For most of 2023, COVID-19 cases have been predominantly driven by the XBB variant and its close relatives, the HV.1 and EG.5 variants.
