Anecdotally, it seems like "everyone knows someone who's sick with COVID-19 right now," according to CNN. Cases have been rising for the entire month of August, with a 19% increase in hospitalizations in the past week, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data updated Thursday. Hospitalizations are still about 35% of what they were in last winter's surge, but now that the CDC stopped tracking cases in May and the population has stopped testing as frequently, it's become more difficult to know the full extent of new waves.
Experts say the CDC data is likely an underestimate. Using wastewater to determine how much the virus is circulating, some estimate 621,837 new cases are being reported each day, about 50% the rate of last winter. All variants in circulation right now are mutations of the Omicron strain of the virus, with top variants EG.5 (nicknamed "Eris") and FL.1.5.1 (nicknamed "Fornax") together responsible for 36% of cases.
